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J. L. M. CURRY 



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BY 
EDWIN ANDERSON ALDERMAN 

AND 

ARMISTEAD CHURCHILL GORDON 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., Ltd. 
1911 

All rightii reserved 



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COPYIUGHT, 1911, BT 

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
Set up and electrotyped. Published July, 1911, 






Nariijoolj ^resa: 
Berwick & Smith Co., Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 



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To THE Memory of 
MARY THOMAS CURRY 

A TRUE AND TENDER WIFE, 

WHOSE UNFAILING SYMPATHY, DEVOTED CARE, 

AND UNDERSTANDING MIND, 

KEPT YOUNG AND STOUT THE HEART 

OF THIS BRAVE 

OPTIMIST AND ADVOCATE. 



"Let us live in the Present and for the Future, leav- 
ing the dead Past to take care of itself, — drawing only 
projitahle lessons from that and all history" 

CURRY TO HIS SON. 



CONTENTS 



Chronology ..... 
Preface ...... 

CHAPTER 

I— "The Dark Corner " . 
II— Alabama: "Here We Rest" 
III — Athenian Days . 
IV — Harvard and New England Influenc 
V — Law and Legislation 
VI — The Bone of Contention . 
VII — "Bleeding Kansas " . 
VIII — A First and Last Allegiance 
IX— The Dawn of War . 
X — A New Nation . 
XI — The Ebbing of the Tide 
XII — Peace and Service 
XIII — In the Old Dominion 
XIV — Politics and Principles 
XV — Peabody and His Trust 
•XVI — The Land of the Alhambra 
XVII — The Peabody Fund Again . 
XVIII — The Birthday of a King . 
XIX — Last Days and End . 
XX — Friends and Associates 
XXI — Educational Theories 
XXII — Conclusion 

Bibliography . 

Membership in Societies 

Legislatures Addressed . 

Index .... 



ES 



PAOB 

xi 
xix 

1 
29 
45 
61 
82 
100 
114 
131 
141 
153 
168 
194 
211 
234 
249 
288 
320 
366 
372 
382 
411 
430 

453 

455 

456 

459 



CHRONOLOGY 

1823 : January 5 : William Curry marries Susan Winn. 

1825: June 5: Jabez Lamar Monroe Curry born. 

1826: 

1827: Mother dies. 

1828: 

1829: September 4: father marries Mrs. Mary Remsen; 

Jabez starts to school to Mr. Fleming. 
1830: To school to Fleming; later, to Vaughn. 
1831: Ditto. 
1832: Ditto. 

1833 : At school in Lincolnton. 

1834: At Waddell's famous school at Willington, S. C. 
1835: At home school, Double Branches; Mr. Finn, 

teacher. 
1836: Ditto. 
1837: Ditto. Father visits Alabama and buys Kelly 

Springs, Talladega Co. 
1838: Moves with parents to Alabama; at school again to 

Mr. Finn. 
1839: August: Enters Franklin College, called later Uni- 
versity of Georgia. 
1840: At College. 
1841: Ditto; in print first time. 
1842: Junior orator: subject, "Andrew Jackson." 
1843: August: Graduates from Franklin College; goes to 

Harvard; enters Dane Law School, September 13. 
1844: Hears Birney, Prentiss, et al., in Faneuil Hall. 
1845: Graduates from Dane Law School; enters law office 

of Samuel F. Rice, at Talladega. 
1846: Joins Texas Rangers for Mexican War; admitted to 

the Bar. 



xii CHEONOLOGY 

1847: March 4: Marries Ann Alexander Bowie; elected 
to Alabama Legislature in August. 

1848 : Making speeches in Presidential campaign for Cass. 

1849: Represents the State as Solicitor in Tallapoosa 
County. 

1850: Turns farmer. 

1851 : Address on death of Calhoun. 

1852: Settles on his farm three miles east of Talladega, 
where he lived till 1865. 

1853: Re-elected to Alabama Legislature. 

1854: February 3: Bill for Geological Survey; farming 
and practicing law. 

1855: Elected third time to State Legislature; defeats 
Know-Nothing candidate; is called the ''Ajax 
Telamon of the Democracy." 

1856: Elector on Democratic Presidential Ticket. 

1857: December 7: Enters U. S. Congress as a State- 
Rights Democrat. 

1858: February 23: Maiden Speech on Kansas Question; 
April 27, speech against Pension Bill. 

1859: December 10: Speech on Progress of Anti-Slavery- 
ism. 

1860: Speech at Talladega on the "Perils and Duty of the 
South"; Mission to the Governor of Maryland. 

1861: January 21: Resigns from Congress with other 
Alabama Representatives; in Confederate Con- 
gress at Montgomery. 

1862: In Confederate Congress at Richmond; lectures on 
"Two Wants of the Confederacy." 

1863: Speaker pro tem. in Confederate House; lectures on 
"Social and Political Quicksands;" defeated in 
August election; at Chickamauga with the 
" Home Guards " ; an unsuccessful candidate for 
the Confederate Senate. 

1864: Serves final term in Confederate Congress, and 
writes the Address to the People of the Confed- 
erate States; Commissioner under the Habeas 



CHRONOLOGY xiii 

Corpus Act; Special Aid to Gen. Joe Johnston; 
Special Aid to Gen. Joe Wheeler; Lt-Colonel, 
commanding 5th Alabama Regiment. 

1865: March 16: Assigned command in North Alabama; 
April 8, wife dies; May 13, paroled; December 5, 
accepts presidency of Howard College. 

1866: January 28: Ordained to the Gospel Ministry; 
preaching, teaching, and speaking on Education. 

1867: June 25: Marries Mary Wortham Thomas; June 
29, sails for Europe; July 10, LL.D. from Mercer; 
October, appointed Professor in Richmond Col- 
lege; Honorary Member of Phi Sigma Society of 
University of Mississippi. 

1868: April 21: Resigns presidency of Howard College; 
April 29, leaves Marion for Richmond; May 6, 
severe injury to Mrs. Curry at Baltimore. 

1869: February 6, 7: Lectures at Washington and Lee; 
August 27, introduced by Barnas Sears to George 
Peabody, at White Sulphur Springs. 

1870: April 20: Address at Brooklyn: ''Conditions and 
Prospects of Education in the South"; June 18, 
report leading to the Baptist Italian Mission; 
October 11, first lecture at Richmond College on 
Constitutional Law; November 2 to 4, has Dr. 
Sears for his guest; December, addresses Joint 
Committee of Legislature in behalf of Richmond 
College. 

1871: February 18: Appointed a Visitor to the Medical 
College of Virginia; D.D. from Rochester Univer- 
sity. 

1872: Elected a Trustee of Southern Baptist Theological 
Seminary; President of General Baptist Associa- 
tion. 

1873: May 29: Address: ''Triumphs and Struggles of 
Virginia Baptists"; October 9, address before the 
World's Evangelical Alliance, New York City. 

1874: Address before the Virginia Agricultural Society; 



xiv CHRONOLOGY 

Elected President of the Foreign Mission Board 
of the Southern Baptist Convention; spoken of 
for United States Senator. 

1875: January 3: Enters upon temporary pastorate of 
First Baptist Church, Richmond; March 19, 
stepmother dies; July 3, sails for Europe for a 
year's absence. 

1876: In Europe first half of the year; presented to Hum- 
bert and Christina. 

1877: March 2: PoUtical disabilities removed; March 3, 
offered a place in his Cabinet by President-elect 
Hayes; March 7, awarded premium on tract: "A 
Baptist Church Radically Different from Pedo- 
Baptist Churches"; March 13, visits old home 
at Talladega; July 31, August 1, visits Dr. Sears 
at Staunton; October 30-November 1, aids in 
entertaining President and Cabinet at Richmond. 

1878: January 29: Famous speech in Mozart Hall, Rich- 
mond, on "Laws and Morals"; many speeches 
throughout the State on the pending issue of the 
State Debt. 

1879: Other speeches on the State Debt; Professor and 
Religious and Social leader. 

1880: March 23: Offered place as Visitor to West Point; 
May 5, sails for Europe; September 24, resumes 
duties at Richmond College; November 2, votes 
for Gen. Hancock. 

1881: January 7: Daughter, Susan Lamar Turpin, dies; 
February 3, elected Peabody Agent; February 7, 
resigns professorship at Richmond College ; June 
23, elected a Trustee of Richmond College; given 
medal as Professor of Philosophy; October 5, 
first annual report to Peabody Trustees. 

1882: Addresses Legislatures of South Carolina, West 
Virginia, and Mississippi. 

1883 : May 8 : Lectures on Gladstone at Waco, Texas; May 
14, 700 public school pupils call on him at his 



CHEONOLOGY xv 

hotel in Fort Worth; May and June, on a 9,000- 
mile trip to Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Yo" 
Semite Valley; December 18, calls on Matthew 
Arnold in Richmond and hears him lecture; De- 
cember 19, visits two colored schools with Mr. 
Arnold. 

1884: October 11: At the old home in Lincoln County, 
Georgia, where he was born. 

1885: March 27: Offered head of Bureau of Education; 
September 23, accepted appointment as Minister 
to Spain; October 1, resigns presidency of Board 
of Trustees of Farmville Normal; October 9, calls 
on J. R. Lowell; November 5, sails for Spain; 
November 25, reaches Madrid. — Alfonso XII 
dies at 9 a.m. the same day. 

1886: May 17: "Assists" at the birth of the new King. 

1887: July 13: LL.D. from the University of Georgia; 
Armitage's History of the Baptists pubHshed, 
with Introduction by Curry. 

1888: April: "The Acquisition of Florida," published in 
the American Magazine of History; August 6, 
resigns as Minister; August 20, resignation ac- 
cepted "with regret"; September 23, lands at 
New York; October 3, after three years' suspen- 
sion, re-elected Peabody Agent. 

1889: "Constitutional Government in Spain"; "Estab- 
lishment and Disestablishment." 

1890: October 1, 2: Peabody Trustees hold annual Meet- 
ing in New York City; October 16, the Currys 
move to Washington City, and occupy their new 
home; October 30, chosen Slater Agent. 

1891 : October 7: Unanimously elected an Honorary Trus- 
tee on the Peabody Board; October 8, meeting of 
Educational Committee of the Slater Fund; pub- 
Hshes volume, "William Ewart Gladstone." 

1892: October 17: Arranges for renewing Peabody Nor- 
mal College Scholarships to Florida and Missis- 



xvi CHEONOLOGY 

sippi. Made a Trustee of Columbian University, 
Washington. (He held the position till his 
death.) 

1893: April 25: Resigns Farmville Trusteeship; May 19, 
entertains the Infanta Eulalia et al. at Washing- 
ton. 

1894: October 4: Re-elected General Agent of the Peabody 
Board; November 21, attends funeral of Robert 
C. Winthrop; publishes "The Southern States of 
the American Union.'' 

1895 : January 1 1 : Meeting of Slater Trustees in Washing- 
ton; January 19, sails for Europe; June 1, returns; 
October 19-28, on Jury of Awards at the Atlanta 
Exposition. 

1896 : October 6 : Special Committee of Peabody Trustees 
met to consider the expediency of terminating 
the Trust in February, 1897 — Adverse decision; 
October 7, Curry re-elected General Agent. 

1897: October 10: Attends funeral of Mrs. Mary W. 
Thomas, mother of Mrs. Curry; December 30, 
elected second president of the Southern History 
Association, to succeed Hon. William L. Wilson. 

1898: April 21: Address on 30th anniversary of Hampton 
Institute; July 4, address at the University of 
Chicago, on the Principles, Acts, and Utterances 
of John C. Calhoun; publishes ''Sketch of George 
Peabody and a History of the Peabody Educa- 
tion Fund." 

1899: June 22: Address before the Education Conference 
at Capon Springs, West Virginia; December 21, 
invited to be Editor-in-Chief of a series of 10 
historical volumes, to be issued by B. F. John- 
son & Company. 

1900: June 12: Address at the University of Virginia; 
June 27, address at Capon Springs; October 9, 
address at Tulane University. 

1901: Publishes a "Civil History of the Government of 



CHEONOLOGY xvii 

the Confederate States, with Some Personal 
Reminiscences." On June 15, deUvers the Cen- 
tennial Commencement Address at the Univer- 
sity of Georgia. 

1902: January 27: Elected a member of the Phi Beta 
Kappa Society of WiUiam and Mary; April 7, en- 
titled ''Ambassador Extraordinary" to Spain; 
April 19, sails for Spain; May 13, reaches Madrid; 
May 15, presents his Address to Alfonso; May 
16, is decorated by the Royal Order of Charles 
III; May 17, attends the Coronation; May 22, 
leaves Madrid; August 2, lands at New York; 
October 1, last meeting with the Peabody Board; 
re-elected General Agent, and $2,000 salary au- 
thorized for a Secretary; November 30 to Decem- 
ber 2, last visit and address to the Peabody Nor- 
mal College, at Nashville. 

1903: February 12— Thursday: Dies at Fernihurst, Ashe- 
ville, N. C; February 15— Sunday: Buried in 
Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond. 



PREFACE 

The subject of this book left for the writer of his 
biography ^^an embarrassment of riches" in the 
voluminous mass of papers, journals and correspond- 
ence that constitute his unpublished literary estate; 
so that the difficulty of the present authors in deal- 
ing with this material has arisen rather in selection 
and co-ordination than from any other source. 

Dr. Curry's mental attitude illustrated a singular 
and remarkable combination of the vision of the 
literary man, and the concrete activity of one who 
does things. Thus it came about that he not only 
achieved results, but he also found time to record 
his achievements. That he was accumulating mate- 
rial for the story of his well-spent life is not incon- 
sistent with such a proper sense of modesty, as is 
rightly adorned by a just self-esteem. Just as it 
was clear to him at the time he began to keep these 
records that his life, if it should be spared to him, 
would be one of unusual opportunity and privilege, 
so in his later years he was of one mind with his 
venerable and distinguished associate in the Peabody 
Trust, Mr. Robert C. Winthrop, that their work in 
the administration of that trust was a conspicuously 
great and enduring public service. 

He kept seven note-books and scrap-books, apart 
from the diary which he kept through many years; 
and in addition to diary and note-books, he pre- 
served four volumes of letters and newspaper clip- 

xix 



XX PEEFACE 

pings, together with many loose sheets and vagrant 
scraps of memoranda. His correspondence was ex- 
tensive, and refutes the popular assertion that letter 
writing has been long a lost art. 

Out of all this mass of documentary resource the 
writers of this biography have tried to select such 
material as would, with proper arrangement in the 
connecting narrative, furnish forth the environment, 
and illustrate the Hfe and character of the man they 
sought to portray. 

For invaluable assistance in this arduous and 
difficult task of selection, and in the co-ordination 
of the material so selected, their thanks are due and 
are here expressed to Dr. John Walter Wayland of 
the Woman's Normal School at Harrisonburg, Vir- 
ginia. His service to the authors was one requiring 
patient energy and scholarly good sense, and he 
discharged that service with great accuracy and 
discretion. 



J. L. M. CURRY 

A BIOGRAPHY 



CHAPTER I 



''the dark corner" 



The vehement and freedom-loving personality of 
John Wilkes so greatly appealed to the patriotic 
Americans of the Revolutionary struggle that they 
gave the name of the eccentric Englishman, who had 
boldly espoused their cause, to three counties in the 
United States. One of these, Wilkes County, in the 
northeastern part of the State of Georgia, was sub- 
divided in the year 1796, and one of its subdivisions 
received the more recently illustrious name of Lin- 
coln, in memory of Benjamin Lincoln, a prominent 
general of the colonial forces in the war with the 
mother country. 

Along the northeastern border of Lincoln County, 
and separating the county and state from the visible 
counties of Edgefield and Abbeville lying to the east 
of it, flows the Savannah River. Lincolnton, the 
county seat, lies near the centre of the county, whose 
southeastern extremity, wedged into the angle 
formed by the confluent Savannah and Little Rivers, 
came to be known in the early days of the country 
as ''The Dark Corner." 

There is nothing in frontier history more charac- 
teristic of the pioneer period than are many of the 
names, bestowed upon their homes by the incoming 
settlers. "The Dark Corner" was justified of its 
title. The Indian was there for a period, with the 

1 



2 J. L. M. CUERY, A BIOGRAPHY 

antagonism of the conquered towards the conqueror. 
In a wild and unsettled country, without laws, or 
schools, or libraries, each man was a law unto him- 
self. This general spirit of lawlessness, or lack of 
law, with its attendant characteristic of reliance upon 
physical strength and personal powers, affected the 
social existence of the inhabitants of ''The Dark 
Corner " down into the earlier years of the nine- 
teenth century; and in the first two decades of that 
century Lincoln County may be said to have been 
lacking both in the sobriety and the peacefulness of 
its population; while, as is commonly the case, the 
reputation, once acquired, long survived the facts 
which created it. 

''Georgia Scenes," Judge Longstreet^s volume of 
inimitable humor, written to illustrate and make 
palpable the earlier years of the nineteenth century 
in that state, has for its first chapter "The Lincoln 
Rehearsal," a title suggested in all probability by 
the county which held "The Dark Corner," where 
characters abounded like Ransy Sniffle, "whom 
nothing on earth so much delighted as a fight;" and 
where far into a higher civilization the conventional 
question, "a thousand times asked," was, "which is 
the best man, Billy Stallions (Stallings) or Bob 
Durham?" and was daily sought to be answered by 
wager of fistic battle. But, as is generally the case 
with simple people, free from the restraints of legal 
or social compulsion, these citizens and denizens of 
"The Dark Corner" had the virtues that accompany 
their faults. They were frank and genial in their 
hospitality, and generous in their dealings with 
both friend and stranger. Their kinship to nature 
was close; and, if their passions were elemental, 



'' THE DAEK COENER '' 3 

their characters took on a certain aspect of nobility 
in their truthfulness, their generosity, their courage, 
and their hardihood. The heroic drama of our 
national expansion was then just getting under way. 
The conquest of the land of a virgin continent, now 
ended, was then beginning. This region was the 
West — a spiritual and idealistic as well as a geo- 
graphical term, for wherever new peoples, new forces 
and new ideals are modifying old conditions — that 
land is the West. 

Here, in the very heart of '^The Dark Corner" — 
''right in the center," he writes of it — ere the sun- 
light of a later civilization had lifted the shadows — 
was born on Sunday, June 5, 1825, Jabez Lamar 
Monroe Curry. 

Jabez was a name that ought never to have been 
bestowed, save with a full sense of the responsibility 
incurred by the giver in its bestowal. It may have 
been that it was conferred with some subtle and 
indefinable prescience on the part of the giver that 
the bearer of it was to witness and to help toward 
the healings of the distress of his people; for Jabez 
is, by interpretation of the Hebrew, ''sorrow, or 
trouble;" or else his parents, with some like un- 
conscious anticipation, may have beheld the great- 
ness of their son's future, and named him for him of 
old, who "was more honourable than his brethren; 
and his mother called him Jabez;" or, as is more 
probable, his parents received their chief inspirations 
and enthusiasms from religion and politics, and 
poured a rather wholesale broadside of both upon 
the helpless babe. 

Of his entire name, which as originally bestowed 
was even more than he himself could bear, he writes 



4 J. L. M. CUERY, A BIOGRAPHY 

in his '^ Diary," with a certain feeling that is not 
altogether destitute of impatience: — 

The Jabez is an honored Bible name, and was borne by 
Jabez Marshall, a popular Baptist preacher in Georgia; 
and by Jabez Curry, who died in Perry County, Alabama, 
in 1873 — a favorite nephew of my father. Lafayette was 
the nation's guest when I was born, and my father, in 
token of gratitude to the friend of Washington, saddled 
me with the name; but I threw it aside and substituted 
Lamar. Monroe was President in 1825; so I had to take 
that burden also. I know no good from my long name, 
but not a little inconvenience. 

The sympathy of the reader must go out to the 
writer of the above poignant paragraph; and a les- 
son to pious or patriotic or thoughtless parents may 
be found in the reflection that a far more befitting 
name, for the great educational figure of his time, 
would have been Lamar Curry. 

The early boyhood of Jabez was made familiar 
with many ^'Georgia Scenes" surpassing in eccen- 
tricity and outlawry even those of which the story- 
teller has made literature. He was a witness, as he 
tells us in the desultory pages of a journal which he 
kept in later years, of many hand-to-hand fights 
and fierce personal encounters. The spirit of the 
Revolution continued, long after its close, to dom- 
inate the section where he was born, a hill country, 
into which through the generations had fled those 
who sought escape from bondage or crime, or who 
desired a larger freedom of thought and action than 
prevailed in the more civilized parts of the new 
Republic; and ''Tory" was, even in Curry^s boy- 
hood, a term of opprobrium, quiet submission to 
which carried with it the stigma of cowardice. Out 



^^THE DARK CORNERS' 5 

of ^^The Dark Corner," and from other parts of the 
county, the lad was wont to see gathered at stated 
intervals its citizen soldiery to the militia musters — 
a period while they lasted, of unrestrained festivity 
rather than of military restriction; and thither, too, 
on important occasions, when a representative in the 
legislature or in the Federal Congress, or a governor 
or other high state official was to be chosen, came 
the freeholders to cast their votes viva voce in the 
presence of the sheriff and the election officers, and 
to be thanked by the candidate who received them. 
No less in the infrequent sessions of the courts of 
that earlier period was illustrated the primitive and 
natural wildness of country and people. A striking 
story is told in the autobiography of a prominent 
man who flourished in an adjoining state, which 
serves to emphasize the state of society then prev- 
alent throughout that section. 

" Pushmatahaw, a Choctaw chief," says the relator, 
who when a very young man, and a new comer to the 
county in which the incident occurred, had just been made 
prosecuting attorney, *' had killed one of his subjects. In 
doing this, he acted under his tribal authority, and was so 
far justifiable. But under our law, which had been ex- 
tended over all the territory conveyed by the Indians to 
the general government, the execution became murder. 
Pushmatahaw exercised great control and influence over 
his tribe. 

"He had in some way incurred the hatred of the land 
companies organized to purchase reservations. It was 
important to them that he should be got out of the way; 
and to this end they employed a number of able attorneys 
to aid me in the prosecution. To avoid censure, it was de- 
termined that there should be only one speaker. 

''The grand jury of Kemper County reported a bill of 



6 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

indictment, and all the requisite preliminaries were per- 
formed by me preparatory to an early trial. I was noti- 
fied that Mr. Samuel J. Gholson would aid me in the argu- 
ment of the case before the jury. 

''The defence had secured the services of some of the 
ablest lawyers in the state from Vicksburg and Jackson. 
A day for trial had been appointed, and witnesses sum- 
moned. I had, soon after my arrival in DeKalb, the county 
seat of Kemper, been introduced to a young Virginian, 
who had lately come there to practise law, and who made 
from the first a marked impression on me. This was 
Joseph G. Baldwin, afterwards so widely known both as 
a lawyer and a literary man. Two days before the trial he 
came to me, and requested to be allowed to take part in 
the argument, as it might lead to future success if he ap- 
peared in a case of so much interest. This I consented to 
do, and carried my point against great opposition from my 
colleagues. The testimony was soon ended. All the facts 
were against the defendant, and the corpus delicti was 
clearly shown. It was necessary to put the defence en- 
tirely upon tribal authority. 

''The argument was opened for the State by Gholson in 
a characteristic speech. When Mr. Joe Baldwin arose, he 
was at first listened to with such slight curiosity and gen- 
eral indifference as might be expected for a very young 
man, entirely unknown to his audience. In a few mo- 
ments this was changed to absorbing interest and atten- 
tion. His speech was marked by the clearest and most 
convincing logic, rising at times into vivid oratory. It 
was evident that this modest young man, though yet to 
fortune and to fame unknown, was destined to take no 
obscure place in his day and generation. 

"Other arguments were made, and the case was sub- 
mitted to the jury. After short deliberation a verdict of 
guilty was rendered. The defendant was informed of the 
result, and that he would be hung. He was shocked at the 
mode of death, and made pathetic appeals against such an 



'' THE DARK CORNER ^' 7 

indignity, claiming his right to die like a warrior. The 
court had no power to interfere, and sentence was pro- 
nounced according to the prescribed forms of our law. 
When this was done, Pushmatahaw rose to his full height, 
and gave vent to a wild war-whoop, so full of rage and 
despair that it was terrible to hear. As there were many 
Indians present, there was for a time danger of attempted 
rescue. 

''Application for pardon was made to the governor, and 
the chief had strong hope that it would be granted. A few 
days before that appointed for the execution, he was in- 
formed that the governor had refused the pardon, and that 
he must die what he considered the death of a dog. This 
communication was made to the unhappy chief in cold- 
blooded and inhuman malice, and the result came near 
proving fatal. Pushmatahaw broke a bottle which 
chanced to be in his cell, and with a piece of the glass 
severed an artery in his left arm. He would have died in a 
short time from loss of blood, if the sheriff had not made 
an accidental visit to the prisoner. A pardon was granted 
and sent to the sheriff by an express, in time to save the 
life of the Choctaw chief." 

'* It^s a far cry to Lochaw/' was the boast of the 
Scotch Campbell, whose broad lands extended over 
so large a space of the Highlands. It seems '^sl far- 
ther cry" in point of time from the year 1835, when 
Jabez Curry was a boy ten years old in ''The Dark 
Corner," and Reuben Davis, later judge of the High 
Court of Appeals, colonel in the war with Mexico, 
member of Congress, and Confederate brigadier gen- 
eral, was prosecuting the Indian chief, Pushmatahaw, 
with the assistance of the beardless Joe Baldwin, 
later Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Cali- 
fornia, who was destined to leave a larger fame than 
is left by the most eminent lawyers, in his ''Flush 



8 J. L. M. CURKY, A BIOGRAPHY 

Times" and 'Tarty Leaders/^ — down to the first 
decade in the twentieth century, when Curry rep- 
resented the government of the United States as its 
special ambassador at the coronation of the present 
King of Spain, in the administration of Theodore 
Roosevelt. 

The Currys were of Scotch origin; and in Scotland 
the name seems to have had the earlier spelling of 
Currie. In one of the will-books of Lincoln County 
was recorded on March 2, 1827, the will of Thomas 
Curry. By this testamentary instrument the maker 
of it appointed two of his sons, James and WiUiam, 
his executors; and to William he devised the old 
home-place in '^The Dark Corner," whereon was 
located the family graveyard. William Curry was 
the father of Jabez ; and his mother was Susan Winn, 
whom William Curry married in Lincoln County on 
January 5, 1823. These Winns are said to have 
been of Welsh extraction; and in any event the 
names both of Currie and Winn indicate a purely 
British origin, and illustrate in conjunction with the 
names, still surviving there, of the people of that 
section, the theory of Prof. Nathaniel S. Shaler, in 
his '^Nature and Man in America," that nowhere in 
the western world, down to the beginning of the War 
between the States in 1861, did the unadulterated 
strain of descent from the Kingdom of Great Britain 
and Ireland so prevail as in a radius of three or four 
hundred miles of the East Tennessee Mountains. 
Both of these names are still to be found, as of great 
antiquity, upon the pages of records that hold the 
pedigrees of the county families of the United King- 
dom. Curry records in one of his note books the 
fact that a General Winn, after whom Winnsboro, 



*^THE DAEK COENER »' 9 

in South Carolina, was named, was an officer of con- 
siderable local distinction in the Revolutionary 
Army; and that later he was for many years a rep- 
resentative in the United States Congress, where he 
was a colleague of Mr. Calhoun, and voted for the 
War of 1812. The Welsh Winns were connected 
with the French Lamars, and the Scotch Currys with 
the English Walkers; so that Curry might well say 
of himself: ''I can hardly call myself an Anglo- 
Saxon, as in my veins flow Enghsh blood, Scotch, 
Welsh, and French.'^ Yet, after all, he was, save 
for the touch of Gallic infusion, a typical product of 
the British races, which gave a character and dis- 
tinctiveness to the earlier colonial settlers of the 
Atlantic seaboard, that was transmitted untainted 
to their descendants who later pressed forward into 
the Southern and Southwestern States. Curry, 
however, with the real democratic spirit, typical of 
the men of the Revolutionary period, and of the two 
generations which succeeded, laid no claim to an 
aristocratic origin, however much he might have 
found himself by research entitled to it. It was 
sufficient to him always to know that he was an 
American; and his Americanism was consistently 
of so broad and catholic a type as to include within 
its comprehension every section and every citizen 
of his country. 

Before Jabez Curry saw the light of day in ''The 
Dark Corner" of Lincoln County, another child had 
been born to his parents. This was Jackson C. 
Curry, who was a man of sterling honesty and worth, 
and who spent his maturer years at Newbern, in 
North Carolina, where he was a deacon in the Baptist 
Church. With the courage and the patriotism of 



10 J. L. M. CUERY, A BIOGRAPHY 

the youth of his generation, when war reddened the 
horizon in 1861, Jackson Curry entered the Confed- 
erate Army, and died in the service £it DemopoHs, 
Alabama, in 1863, having achieved the rank of 
captain, and leaving to survive him two sons and 
three daughters. 

One of Jabez Curry's earliest recollections, as he 
records it in his '^Journal," was a faint and faded 
memory of his father's second marriage, which oc- 
curred September 4, 1829, when the boy was a little 
over four years old. His mother and an infant 
brother had died in 1827. With a wistfulness, that 
grows into pathos in its conclusion, ho wrote of her, 
fifty years later, this paragraph: — 

Of course I do not remember ever to have seen her. 
Very many persons have told me that she was exceedingly 
beautiful. It has been a source of sincerest regret that I 
was not trained in my youngest years by a loving mother. 
Delicate and susceptible, my life might have been differ- 
ent; but God knows best. I have a thousand times wished 
for her likeness; but in her day there were no daguerreo- 
types or photographs; and few persons had portraits 
painted. 

Though thus lamenting, with the retrospection 
which took him back to earliest infancy, this depriva- 
tion of maternal tenderness and solicitude, — a loss 
which the most callous heart must of necessity 
regret, — he has not failed to record the kindliness 
of his relations with his father's second wife, and his 
sense of indebtedness to her. 

''My stepmother was a real mother to me," he writes, 
''and loved me as she did her own children. I gladly and 
gratefully bear this testimony to her faithfulness, kind- 
ness and love." 



'' THE DARK CORNER '» 11 

The second wife of William Curry was Mrs. Mary 
Remsen, a widow, who was born Murray, and whose 
father was a Revolutionary soldier. She was a 
woman of social prominence in her community; and 
her brother, the Honorable Thomas W. Murray, was 
a figure of more than local distinction, in whose 
honor one of the counties of the State was sub- 
sequently named. Of her first marriage had been 
born a son, David H. Remsen, who grew up in the 
household of William Curry as one of his own family, 
and was the playmate and associate, while he was 
treated as the brother, of Jackson and Jabez Curry. 
Of William Curry's second marriage were born Mark 
Shipp Curry, Thomas Curry, Walker Curry, and 
James A. Curry, of the latter of whom Dr. Curry 
writes in his diary under date of July 3, 1894, ''My 
half-brother, James A. Curry, died in Anniston, 
Alabama." There seems to be no further record of 
the subsequent career of Mark Shipp Curry, the 
eldest of the half-brothers; but Thomas Curry was 
a soldier of the Confederacy, and became a captain 
in the Fifty-third Alabama regiment, and Walker 
Curry achieved eminence as a physician, and was a 
practitioner of his profession in New York City; 
while James A. Curry was a prominent man in the 
development of the mineral resources of Alabama. 
He was a pioneer in the iron business, and with 
Samuel Clabaugh in 1863 erected and operated a 
charcoal furnace in Talladega County. Prior to the 
breaking out of the War between the States, James 
A. Curry had been a merchant of large means in the 
town of Talladega; and he owned the lands on Salt 
Creek in that county on which his and Clabaugh's 
charcoal pig-iron furnace was erected, which was 



12 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

destroyed by the Federal troops a year or two later. 
William Curry, the father, was of the generation 
which succeeded that of the pioneers in Wilkes and 
Lincoln Counties; and this second generation in- 
herited the moral fibre of their pioneer progenitors. 
Though the feud and the foray had not in his time 
altogether passed away, and the original '^char- 
acter^' still lent variety and the not infrequent spice 
of excitement to the community in which he lived, 
these men of the Lower South of that period were 
not always, or even frequently, the whiskey-drinking, 
swaggering rowdies of revolver and bowie-knife, that 
caricature and libel have portrayed them. 

"It is true," writes a competent chronicler of them and 
of their times, "that many of them drank hard, swore 
freely, and were utterly reckless of consequences when 
their passions were aroused. But it is equally true that 
the great body of them were sober, industrious men, who 
met hardships and toil with patient courage, and whose 
hands were as ready to extend help as they were to resist 
violence and oppression. They took life jovially, and en- 
joyed such pleasures as they could come by. Although a 
God-fearing people, — for infidelity was unknown, — there 
was nothing straight-laced about their religion. They at- 
tended divine worship in a reverent spirit and endeavored 
to do their duty to God and man, so far as they saw it. 
Even the strictest of them made no scruple about a social 
glass, or a lively dance, or a game of cards, or even of an 
honest hand to hand fight under due provocation." 

This naive depiction of a social existence in which 
the writer personally figured, continues: — 

Their creed was generally simple. A man ought to fear 
God and mind his business. He should be respectful and 
courteous to all women; he should love his friends and hate 



'' THE DARK CORNER '» 13 

his enemies. He should eat when he was hungry, drink 
when he was thirsty, dance when he was merry, vote for 
the candidate he Uked best, and knock down any man who 
questioned his right to these privileges. He was almost 
always an ardent politician, and a strong partisan on 
whichever side he enlisted. But a man would have been 
held in reprobation who should attempt to serve his party 
by fraud and corruption. There was no ballot-box stuf- 
fing. 

If creed and custom were alike primitive, they 
were nevertheless manly and not insufficient; and 
their crudity emphasized an integrity that was the 
backbone of their social life. 

Here in Lincoln County, amid such surroundings, 
and touched by such influences as have been nar- 
rated, William Curry lived, and his son Jabez spent 
his earlier years. History makes mention on its 
lesser pages of many names of the time and vicin- 
ity, — for the most part stout English and Scotch 
and Welsh names, with a touch of the Gallic. 
Among the first settlers of the county whose names 
are thus preserved in the local annals were Thomas 
Murray, the father of WilUam Curry's second 
wife, Robert Walton, John Lockhart, B. Lockhart, 
Thomas Mitchell, Sterne Simmons, J. Stovall, 
Captain John Lamar, Stephen Handspiker, M. 
Henley, Robert Fleming, James Wallace and Peter 
Lamar. The two most prominent men of the 
county in William Curry's time appear to have 
been his brother-in-law, Thomas W. Murray, and 
Judge John M. Dooley, who like Murray also had 
the honor of having a county of the State named 
for him. 

Of the Lamars, whose patronymic Curry sub- 



14 J. L. M. CUREY, A BIOGRAPHY 

stituted for that of La Fayette, which his father 
had patriotically bestowed upon him, and whose 
blood mingled with the other strains in his veins, 
the story of the South contains no little. The two 
most famous of the name and family, since their 
Huguenot ancestor first settled in the western world, 
was Mirabeau B. Lamar, orator, poet, soldier and 
statesman, compatriot of Sam Houston, Secretary 
of War of the Repubhc of Texas, the Commander- 
in-chief of its armies, its Vice-President, and for 
three years its President without opposition; and 
his no less distinguished nephew, Lucius Quintus 
Curtius Lamar, fitted out like his uncle and like 
his kinsman, Jabez Curry, with extraordinary 
names, after the apparent fashion of the times, who 
as Congressman, author of the Mississippi Ordinance 
of Secession, Lieutenant Colonel of the Nineteenth 
Mississippi regiment. Minister to Russia from the 
Confederate States, Secretary of the Interior and 
Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, 
touched nothing that he did not adorn. 

The religious influences of the period in Lincoln 
County emanated from the ministers and members, 
for the most part, of two denominations, — the 
Methodists and Baptists, — whose missionaries have 
been from the earliest times in the rugged forefront 
of pioneer progress in America. The ^^ hardshell'' 
or primitive Baptist of that period was a mighty 
force in the development of young communities. 
Religion and sestheticism had not joined hands in 
that rough world. The preacher preached a simple, 
fearful creed, compounded strangely of tenderness 
and pitilessness, and lived an heroic unselfish life, 
and his doctrines and practices made such an impres- 



'' THE DAEK CORNER '' 15 

sion upon the family of William Curry that all the 
culture and cosmopolitanism of the widest travel 
and experience could not wean his distinguished son 
from the faith of his early years. 

When about four years old, Jabez Curry was sent 
to an ^^old field school'' in '^The Dark Corner/' 
where reading, writing and arithmetic were taught 
by one Joel Fleming, the master. The character 
and regimen of the homes of the vicinity were more 
or less primitive and simple. The furniture was 
plain and serviceable. The floors were generally 
bare of carpets or coverings. These primitive homes 
contained a population that has been generally de- 
scribed as having been '^ raised on pot-liquor, and 
fortified from early youth on jowl and greens, and 
buttermilk, and hog-meat smoked to the last turn, 
to say nothing of cornpone with reasonable gravy." 
The schools, school-houses and schoolmasters 
matched the homes. The old field school-house, 
which the Httle boy attended, was built of logs, 
with the interstices daubed with clay. It was set 
in a woods, and was roofed with puncheons. There 
was but one door; and the shutter of the single 
unglazed window swung on creaking wooden hinges. 
The window itself was simply a hole in the wall, 
opposite the huge fireplace, made by cutting out a 
section of one of the logs. Alongside this narrow 
opening was a wide plank, fastened against the wall, 
which was used by the school-children as a writing 
desk. The first-formed letters of Jabez Curry, 
learned in the little log school-house in the Georgia 
woods, were made with a goose-quill pen, which was 
the exclusive instrument of writing, — the manufac- 
ture of which, no less than its use, was sedulously 



16 J. L. M. CUERY, A BIOGRAPHY 

taught by all well-minded teachers in the old field- 
schools. An accompaniment of the quill-pen was 
the sand-box, whose contents took the place of the 
more modern blotting-paper; and often master and 
pupils manufactured also the ink that they wrote 
with, — a writing fluid which must have been well- 
made, for the public records that are its monument 
are still clear and legible in a new century. 

The ''old field schools'^ were co-educational; and 
boys and girls went to school together. In warm 
weather, the larger boys were permitted to study 
their lessons outside the school-house, beneath the 
trees. There were no long vacations; but when a 
holiday was desired for any special occasion, the 
master was not over strenuous in resisting the request 
of the children. Sometimes a mild compulsion was 
resorted to by the children, when their holiday peti- 
tion was rejected, and the master would be ''barred 
out." If the pedagogue resisted and made fight, 
the youngsters met force with force; and Curry has 
left among his papers a note in which he relates how, 
on one occasion, young though he was, he partici- 
pated in one of these "lock-outs" against Mr. 
Fleming. The master seems to have been beloved 
by the children, but as, at the time of this episode, 
he proved recalcitrant when approached for a holi- 
day, his affectionate pupils proceeded first to bar 
him out; and later, the larger boys bore the strug- 
gling pedagogue to the neighboring creek, and soused 
him into its shallow depths, while even the little 
Jabez waded into the stream, and with both small 
hands flung water on his preceptor, while the big 
boys held him down. It is recorded that the wise 
and simple master had taken advantage of the op- 



'' THE DAKK CORNER " 17 

portunity, generously afforded him, prior to the 
^'ducking," to leave his tobacco-pouch on dry land; 
and that in recognition of the kindhness of his ad- 
versaries in this respect, he took his enforced plunge 
with serene good humor. The holiday was gained; 
and the pedagogic function in due season resumed, 
with no apparent diminution or impairment of the 
usual discipline, and no intimation of diminished 
dignity. 

It has been correctly said by an intelligent writer 
on the subject of elementary education at the South 
during this early period, that: — 

The old academies of the South were many of them ex- 
cellent schools, and in some respects have not yet been 
surpassed. The ''old field" school was often good; but 
the whole arrangement was without adequate supervision, 
was expensive and uncertain, and did not reach many of 
our people. The percentage of illiteracy was high, and 
was not decreasing. 

In the later 'forties the spirit of the great common school 
revival, which had been led by Horace Mann, began to 
influence the South; and in the early 'fifties the messages 
of the Southern governors contained many eloquent ap- 
peals for a state system of schools for all the children, and 
if war had not intervened, their appeals would have 
quickly taken form in a progressive system of public edu- 
cation. 

Northern teachers were frequent in the Southern 
States, and especially young college graduates from 
New England, who migrated to the newly developing 
section of the country, with the idea of advancing 
their fortunes, sooner or later, in the professions of 
law and medicine, or by taking advantage of the 
many opportunities which the time and locality 



18 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

offered. So it happened that young Curry^s next 
teacher was a Mr. Vaughan, from Maine, who seems 
not to have possessed the equable temper and for- 
giving spirit of Mr. Fleming. He was a rigorous and 
severe disciplinarian, but is supposed to have been 
an excellent instructor. 

''In 1833, the stars fell.'' This date of the great 
meteoric shower, Curry, who was then in his eighth 
year, recalled vividly in later life ; associating it with 
what is always an occasion of vast importance in the 
life of a lad, — his departure from home, to attend 
school at a distance. He was sent from his father's 
home, in ''The Dark Corner," to Lincolnton, where 
his grandmother lived; and, boarding with her, was 
put to school with the Reverend Mr. McKerley, the 
minister of what was then perhaps the sole Presby- 
terian church, and with a scant congregation, in the 
county. Mr. McKerley, if his name counts for 
aught, was of Galloway Scotch stock; and, after the 
fashion of Presbyterian ministers of that day no less 
than of the present, was a scholar. Under him 
Jabez Curry began the study of Latin, — a language 
whose acquisition stood him in good subsequent 
stead in his later career as lawyer, politician, and 
preacher; and which he doubtless ascertained to be 
of incalculable value to him in his study of the 
southern languages of Europe during his distin- 
guished career as diplomat and Ambassador. 

At Mr. McKerley's school, his cousin, Lafayette 
Lamar, was his classmate and most intimate friend; 
and the cordial and affectionate association between 
the two young lads, formed at Lincolnton, was con- 
tinued and cemented in their later association at 
college. 



^' THE DARK CORNER '' 19 

During the year young Lamar's sister was mar- 
ried; and Curry records that the rows of iced 
cakes, set in the sun to dry, ere they should ''furnish 
forth the marriage feast," were more wonderful to 
his sense of interest and curiosity than had been 
the falling stars. They were the first iced cakes of 
his boyish experience. He had attended once before 
the nuptials of a young woman cousin ; but, for some 
virtue of the bride, or yet other undisclosed reason, 
there had been no iced cakes set out to harden in 
the sun; and so he tells that the only thing he re- 
membered in connection with that interesting event 
was that he sat upon a fence, with some other boys, 
and while peeling a turnip, cut his hand, making a 
gash, the scar of which he carried through life. 

On a Saturday, during his school days at Lincoln- 
ton, in company with young Lamar and a companion 
named Frayser, he went into the courthouse, and 
with the reckless daring of youth, drew a series of 
figures in charcoal on the whitewashed walls of the 
temple of justice. His uncle, Peter Lamar, hap- 
pened to come in and catch the boys in their vandal 
act, and scolded them severely, threatening them 
with confinement in jail and other condign punish- 
ment. The threat was one that suggested humiha- 
tion and terror; for Jabez had, on previous occasion, 
been permitted to see the inside of the county jail at 
Lincolnton. 

Many famous names and incidents center about 
that old courthouse in Lincolnton. The courthouse 
of the frontier world, particularly in southern life, 
was a combination of what the theatre was to the 
Greeks, the forum to the Romans, the Cathedral to 
the mediaeval world, the piazza or the market place 



20 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

to the denizens of sunny lands, and the club to the 
dwellers in modern cities. It centered in itself and 
absorbed all secular interests. Excitements and 
thrills were to be experienced there. Ambitions 
were born there, ideals formed, and patriotism 
warmed and directed. Here the great and the near- 
great passed before the eyes of simple people seeking 
their confidence and loyalty. The church alone was 
strong enough to vie with the courthouse in human 
interest. It was the chief architectural glory of 
straggling villages, standing generally upon some 
eminence and dominating a hollow square of lesser 
structures devoted to trade. It is interesting and 
significant to note that a more practical and far- 
seeing generation is now substituting the schoolhouse 
for the courthouse as the center and pivot of commu- 
nity life. The transfer of interest from the one to 
the other in the public mind denotes a profound 
change in the popular conception of the meaning of 
politics. Politics is now coming to mean a practical 
program of growth and training, through which the 
fittest and best of all the young life about can be 
made ready for leadership. This attitude places the 
emphasis on the child who may be made great, rather 
than on the adult claimant of greatness, and marks 
a distinct advance in social understanding. 

Conspicuous among the great figures of young 
Curry's Temple of Justice was the presiding judge 
of the circuit of the period of his charcoal sketch, 
Wilham H. Crawford, later a man of national fame 
and a candidate for the presidency in 1824; Garnett 
Andrews, who had a local and state reputation as a 
lawyer and jurist; Judge Joseph H. Lumpkin, after- 
wards Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia, 



'' THE DARK CORNER '' 21 

and in his day one of the most eminent and successful 
lawyers at the Georgia bar; Andrew Miller, for many 
years president of the State Senate, a lawyer and 
politician of distinction; and Robert Toombs, then 
a young man, and afterwards a figure of conspicuous 
distinction in the history of the nation. 

The next year young Curry was sent to school in 
Willington, across the Savannah River, in Abbeville 
County, South Carolina, whither his brother Jackson 
and David Remsen had preceded him the year be- 
fore. The school at Willington was famous in its 
day. Founded in the first decade of the 19th century 
by the Reverend Moses Waddell, it was among the 
most noted of the earlier ante-bellum academies; 
and Waddell himself was in the forefront of the 
schoolmasters of his generation. It has been said 
of the school at Willington that '4t was in the coun- 
try, far from town; the life was simple and discipline 
was strict; the hardest work was required of all 
students." Among Dr. Waddell's pupils at various 
times were his famous brother-in-law, John Caldwell 
Calhoun; George McDuffie, ^Hhe orator of Nullifi- 
cation;'^ Judge Longstreet, of '^Georgia Scenes" 
fame; James Bowie, soldier and adventurer, who 
invented the deadly knife of the southwestern coun- 
try that is called after him, and who died with 
Crockett and Travis and their fellows in the defense 
of the Alamo; James Lewis Petigru, defender of the 
Union in the days of South Carolina nullification, 
attorney general of the state and codifier of its laws; 
and of a number of others whose names are scarcely 
less distinguished and well-remembered. 

At the time of Curry's attendance on the school 
at Willington, it was directed and taught by the sons 



22 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

of the elder Waddell, James P. and John N. Waddell. 
There were about a hundred boys, many of whom 
boarded at private houses in the tiny village, and 
with the neighboring farmers. Young Curry's host 
was a Dr. Harris, who gave his company biscuits 
every Sunday morning, and cornbread in its various 
shapes on other days and times. The pupils gath- 
ered at Willington from many directions in the sur- 
rounding districts of Georgia and South Carolina; 
and among other contemporaries there of the two 
young Currys were W. W. Boyce, who was later a 
member of Congress from South Carolina; Gen. 
Milledge L. Bonham, also a member of Congress, 
and later Governor of South Carolina; and others 
of more or less local or sectional distinction. 

The Willington Academy, which had been first 
established by Dr. Waddell at Vienna, in Carolina, a 
short distance from its subsequent site, has been 
described by one who was familiar with it, as having 
become famous all over the South. Says this 
writer: 

After Dr. Waddell was forced from age and dis- 
ability, to give up teaching, the school was revived by 
his sons, James and John Waddell, but under the gen- 
eral supervision of the old schoolmaster. No doubt his 
sons followed their father's plan of teaching, and as I 
was, when a boy, long an inmate of Moses Waddell's 
family, and a pupil at the Willington Academy, it may 
not be unentertaining to give a short account of the old 
Willington schoolhouse, as we had it from tradition. The 
boys boarded at farmhouses in the neighborhood or lived 
in log huts in the woods near the Academy, furnishing 
their own supphes. At sunrise Dr. Waddell was wont to 
wind his horn, which was immediately answered by 



'' THE DARK CORNER '' 23 

horns in all directions. At an early hour the pupils 
made their appearance at the log cabin schoolhouse. 
The Doctor, entering the cabin and depositing his hat, 
would reappear at the door with this school horn in his 
hand. He then would call out loud, ''What boy feels 
most flatulent this morning? '* 

After the horn had been sounded by some lucky 
youth, the school-boys came in to listen to a short 
set form of prayer. 

After prayers the pupils, each with a chair bearing his 
name sculped in the back of it, retired to the woods for 
study, the classes being divided into squads according to 
individual preference. In the spring and summer months 
these squads scattered through the oak and hickory woods 
in quest of shade; but in cold weather the first thing done 
by them was to kindle log-heap fires. Whosoever im- 
agines that the boys did not study as well as they would 
have done under the immediate eye of the teacher is mis- 
taken. I have been to many schools conducted according 
to various systems of education, but nowhere have I seen 
such assiduity in study, nowhere have I ever witnessed 
such emulation to excel. It was a classical school. The 
multiplicity of studies now advertised at fashionable acad- 
emies was unknown in those early times. The debating 
club on Friday afternoons was an important institution, 
and regarded by the teacher as a very necessary part of his 
scholastic system, for to converse and speak in public were 
esteemed necessary accomplishments to Southern youths. 

Of the famous schoolmaster, whose sons succeeded 
him in the school where the methods of their father's 
system were still continued in Curry's day at Willing- 
ton, Mr. Calhoun long afterwards wrote as follows : — 

In that character (as a teacher) he stands almost un- 
rivaled. He may be justly considered as the father of 



24 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

classical education in the upper country of South Carolina 
and Georgia. His excellence in that character depended 
not so much on extensive or profound learning as a felici- 
tous combination of qualities for the government of boys 
and communicating to them what he knew. He was par- 
ticularly successful in exciting emulation amongst them, 
and in obtaining the good will of all except the worthless. 
The best evidence of his high qualities as a teacher is his 
success. Among his pupils are to be found a large portion 
of the eminent men in this state and Georgia. In this state 
it is sufficient to name McDuffie, Legare, Petigru, and my 
colleague, Butler. To these many others of distinction 
might be added. His pupils in Georgia who have distin- 
guished themselves are numerous. In the list are to be 
found the names of William H. Crawford, Longstreet, etc. 
It is in his character of a teacher, especially, that he will 
long be remembered as a benefactor of the country. 

During the year of Curry's stay at Willington an 
event of great importance in the eyes of the pupils 
was the visit to the school of the famous Siamese 
twins, Chang and Eng, who were then making their 
first tour in America. He makes record among his 
memoranda of seeing the twins at Willington. They 
seemed, he says, to be about seventeen years old; 
and cheerful and very agile. 

''Cherry Hill," the home of George McDuffie, was 
near the Willington Academy; and was a favorite 
resort of the boys on Saturdays. McDuffie's dis- 
tinguished career in the United States House of 
Representatives ended during the year of Curry's 
pupilage at Willington; and in the same year he was 
elected Governor of South Carolina. In 1842 he 
was chosen to the Senate, and was in the forefront 
of the forensic and political debates and contests of 
the period in that body. 



*^ THE DARK CORNER'^ 25 

It remains to be added, in connection with Curry's 
life at Willington, that both the sons of Moses 
Waddell, James Pleasants Waddell and John Newton 
Waddell, became eminent in their chosen profession 
as educators, — the former filling with success and 
distinction the chairs of Latin and Greek in the Uni- 
versity of Georgia, where Curry records of him that 
he treated his old pupil with a fatherly care and kind- 
ness during the latter's career as a student; while 
John Newton Waddell became professor of Latin 
and Greek in the University of Mississippi, and later 
its Chancellor. 

During the next succeeding year, and for the two 
years following, from 1835 to 1838, young Curry 
and his brothers were kept at home, and attended a 
school nearby at ''Double Branches." The teacher, 
Daniel W. Finn, was an Irishman, and a graduate of 
Dublin University, where he had studied for the 
Roman Cathohc priesthood. With such educational 
opportunities, Mr. Finn had made of himself a most 
excellent scholar; and he was highly proficient and 
accomplished, especially in the ancient languages. 
He was moreover a very popular and successful 
teacher; and it doubtless goes without saying that 
Curry, who was fond of books and usually an apt 
and industrious student, made satisfactory progress 
under the Irishman in the branches of Latin, Greek, 
Algebra and Geometry, in all of which the master 
instructed his pupil. 

''Double Branches," in the southern part of Lin- 
coln County, was the site of a Baptist Church; and 
it is eminently characteristic of what might be called 
the " cosmopoUtan " liberality of thought and 
breadth of view of the population of the period, had 



26 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

they known aught of cities, that they not only sent 
their children to school to a Roman Catholic, but 
that they permitted a mulatto preacher to fill oc- 
casionally the pulpit of the ^^ Double Branches'' 
Baptist Church. This man's name was Adams; 
and Curry records of him that he preached to the 
satisfaction of all, both white and colored, and adds: 
'^For a colored man to preach to white congregations 
was not an offence." 

William Curry at this time was a farmer and coun- 
try merchant. His store drew custom from a wide 
circle; and both musters and elections were held in 
its immediate vicinity. Politics ran high in those 
days, in Lincoln County as elsewhere; and carried 
inevitably in their train frequent excitement and ill- 
feeling. But the Lincoln County folks took their 
politics, as they did the other happenings of life, 
with a philosophic good humor which did not suffer 
the sun to go down on their political wrath; and the 
asperities of election day generally disappeared in 
the emulation of the quarter-races, which almost 
invariably succeeded the polling, the electors riding, 
in competition, quick heats on the nags that had 
brought them to the store for the purpose of voting. 

In the country sports, common to boys and men, 
young Jabez Curry took his hearty share. The 
hunting of the opossum and the 'coon, an immemorial 
pastime and delight with many generations of 
Southern boys and their darkey friends and play- 
mates, and embalmed in the melody and pathos of 
more than one plantation song, was a favorite pur- 
suit with Jabez. '^Very often," he says, ^^have I, 
with other boys and some of my father's negroes, 
hunted for half the night. It was a boyish ambition, 



'^ THE DARK CORNER '' 27 

too, to be out all night. The skill of the negroes in 
finding their way in the woods by starlight used to 
excite my boyish admiration." 

It was such association as this with the young 
people of the slave population that gave their white 
owners so strong a hold upon the natural affections 
of the negroes; and no one can fully realize and 
appreciate the reciprocal feelings of kindliness and 
regard that held the two races of that period so 
strongly together, who has never been Opossum or 
'coon hunting on a Southern plantation at night, 
with a company of dusky negro playmates! 

Hunting birds, too, in the brush heaps of the '^new 
grounds," where the virgin forests had fallen before 
the axe, and the logs had been piled up to be removed 
or burnt, was also an exciting sport, with its ac- 
companiment of flashing pine torches and whistling 
dogwood branches; but the helplessness of the 
victims, and their easy capture or destruction when 
bUnded by the torchlight, and stricken down by the 
switches, gave it a cruel aspect to young Curry, who 
preferred other and less easy pursuits. A rabbit- 
hunt was a good thing, for bunny had a chance to 
get away; and fishing with hook and line in river 
and creek, or hauling the seine in the mill-ponds, 
offered many opportunities of enjoyment to the 
growing lad. ''I well remember," he declared in 
after years, with the vivid recollection in which 
childhood often preserves its simplest memories — 
'^I well remember the first fish — a Uttle minnow — 
I ever caught; and Napoleon was not prouder of 
one of his great victories than I was of my piscatory 
success." 

It is a characteristic of the negro race, familiar to 



28 J. L. M. CUREY, A BIOGRAPHY 

those who have associated with them in more than 
one of the Southern States, that the farther south 
they Uve, and the nearer to the equator, the more 
amenable they appear to the impressions of super- 
stition. Superstitious under the most favorable cir- 
cumstances, the negro of the far south is voodooistic 
and ^^conjur-man" to an extreme degree; and 
James Whitcomb Riley's lines convey no inapt de- 
scription of him amid his surroundings: — 

Amid lush fens of rice, 

I beheld the negro's eyes 
Lit with that old superstition time itself cannot disguise; 

And I saw the palm-tree nod 

Like an oriental god. 
And the cotton froth and bubble at the pod. 

There were no palm trees nor rice in the part of 
Georgia where Jabez Curry grew up as a child; but 
the negro was there with his immemorial self-delu- 
sions and gross beUefs. Curry has left a grave 
record of the evil results which this strange quality 
of the African mind made upon his own in early 
childhood — an experience that was common to very 
many of the sensitive and imaginative white children 
of the South: — 

''The negroes, a superstitious, gullible race," he writes, 
"used to tell me most marvellous tales about ghosts, 
witches, hobgoblins, and haunted places; and I had not a 
shadow of doubt as to the truth of their statement. The 
result on myself was so painful and mischievous, that I 
made it an inflexible rule in training my children to deal 
frankly with them, and under no circumstances to deceive 
them.'' 



CHAPTER II 



ALABAMA: ''hERE WE REST" 



In the year 1837, Curry's father visited Alabama, 
and bought a tract of land in Talladega County, 
known as Kelly's Springs. It was the period of the 
''Flush Times of Mississippi and Alabama," whose 
history has been chronicled with the deft and illumi- 
nating pen of Judge Joseph G. Baldwin. In the 
public estimation, there were great fortunes to be 
made from the acquisition of lands. ''Fiat money" 
of the irresponsible state banks, and the "shin- 
plaster" currency of a wild economic period in the 
history of the lower South, abounded everywhere; 
and speculation was rife. William Curry paid 
thirty-nine dollars per acre for his Talladega farm; 
and in spite of the later fading of the "Flush Times" 
and the collapse of the "boom" in land values, he 
presumably never had cause to regret his purchase. 
In December of the same year, or in January of the 
next, he sent his negroes, in charge of an overseer, to 
Kelly's Springs, to prepare the ground and put out 
a crop. He sold the old home place in "The Dark 
Corner," and in May, 1838, set out with his family 
for his new home in Alabama. Though thus parting 
finally with the residence and family graveyard of 
his people in Lincoln County, which passed thence- 
forward into the hands of strangers, William Curry 

29 



30 J. L. M. CUREY, A BIOGRAPHY 

appears to have retained considerable landed estate 
in Georgia, for he owned not only a large body of 
land in Lincoln County, but a number of other tracts 
and lots in various parts of the state, — illustrating 
in its acquisition and retention one of the most 
marked characteristics, as philosophic historians re- 
mind us, of the genuine Anglo-Saxon, whether as an 
individual, or in the aggregate as a race. 

The starting to Alabama was delayed by the ex- 
treme illness of young Curry's stepmother; and the 
journey was made by Mrs. Curry in a carriage. 

In 1802 Georgia, in emulation of the generous and 
splendid act of Virginia in ceding to the United 
States the great Northwest Territory, had ceded to 
the general government the region which became in 
1817 the territory of Alabama, and two years later 
was admitted into the Union as a state. The act 
by which this cession was made provided that the 
terms and conditions of the Ordinance of 1787 
governing the Northwest Territory should apply, 
except the provision in the latter as to slavery. The 
act of Congress, authorizing the people of Alabama 
to form a state government, contained like provi- 
sions, and specified that the constitution of the new 
state should be in accordance with the Ordinance 
save as to the slavery provision. It also contained 
provision for certain land grants dedicated to educa- 
tion and internal improvements. 

It has been said of the Convention which met at 
Huntsville, on July 5, 1819, and continued in session 
until August 2, that it was an able body of men, 
many of whom had gained political experience in 
the older states; and that ''it is possible to trace in 
the document which they drew up the influence of 



ALABAMA: *^ HEEE WE EEST '» 31 

Virginia, Georgia, Tennessee, North and South Car- 
ohna ideas; yet the document was not a slavish one. 
It was a good, practical constitution, and it lasted 
with several small amendments down to the War 
of Secession." 

Alabama became one of the states of the American 
Union, December 14, 1819; so that its statehood 
was but a little more than five years of age at the 
date of Curry's birth in 1825. When he became its 
citizen in 1838, both state and boy were young; and 
thenceforward they grew up and developed together 
until War arose on the horizon, and a new govern- 
ment claimed and received the allegiance of both. 

At the time of WiUiam Curry's migration with his 
family from Lincoln County, Georgia, to Talladega, 
Alabama, the new state was such a frontier country 
as the Georgia of a preceding generation had been. 
The historian, above quoted, says of it: — 

The conquest of nature absorbed the inhabitants of the 
new state so fully that they had little time for political 
questions; nor did these for some time press upon them for 
solution. The new state began its career in the ''Era of 
Good Feeling," under President Monroe. The bitter Mis- 
souri contest was contemporaneous with its admission, 
and during the years of political quiet that followed, Ala- 
bama knew no politics. The population was nearly half 
slave; but the conditions were favorable to slavery, and 
there was little difference of opinion about it. Laws were 
passed to regulate the institution, to prevent cruelty on 
the one hand and wholesale emancipation on the other, to 
prescribe the status of free negroes, and to maintain order 
among the slav^es and the free. The question then passed 
into the background, where it slumbered, with one or two 
brief interruptions, until it was called forth by the great 
discussions that immediately preceded the War. 



32 J. L. M. CUERY, A BIOGRAPHY 

The distance which was traversed by the Curry 
family in going from ''The Dark Corner ^^ to their 
new home at Kelly's Springs was more than two 
hundred miles. The way stretched entirely across 
the State of Georgia and a third of the way across 
the State of Alabama. It was no slight or trivial 
journey, for the way was largely unbroken, and the 
means of locomotion primitive. The cavalcade was 
composed of the white family in vehicles or on 
horseback, the carriage in which Mrs. Curry was 
transported, various wagons and horses, the latter 
hitched to the vehicles, or ridden under saddle, and 
numerous negro household servants. A necessary 
part of its equipment was a sufficient supply of tents, 
for there was neither inn nor hostelry for the accom- 
modation of man or beast. But the May weather 
was mild and balmy; and camping-out under a 
cloudless heaven, beneath the overhanging stars, 
afforded the lad a new joy, the memory of which 
lasted through his life. The wolves, attracted by 
the camp-fires which the servants built at night, ap- 
proached the camp, and protested against the in- 
vasion of their territory with doleful howls; but the 
fears which they aroused in the minds of the youthful 
members of the party were accompanied by such a 
sense of excitement and interest as to make them 
not unwelcome. At a point where the little caval- 
cade crossed the Georgia line into what is now 
Cleburne County, Alabama, young Curry got his 
first sight of the mountains. Though they were 
neither lofty nor commanding, they presented to 
his view a novel and unexperienced landscape; and 
in traversing them he examined with keen interest 
the grasses, shrubs and ferns with which they were 



ALABAMA: ^^ HERE WE REST '^ 33 

covered. A long familiarity in after years with the 
mountains of his native country, and with the 
Pyrenees, the Alps and the Apennines of the old 
world, never obliterated from his memory that early 
impression of the low mountains of the Georgian 
border. 

''It was a sad exodus," he wrote, more than half a cen- 
tury later, in allusion to a visit some years before to the 
old place in Lincoln County, "leaving the old homestead, 
where grandparents and mother lay buried. Many years 
afterwards I revisited my birthplace, but what a change! 
When my father emigrated, he left a mansion, all needful 
outhouses, a grove of beautiful oaks, a fertilized vegetable 
garden, a yard glowing with roses and rare flowers, well- 
bearing orchards of selected fruits, a plantation well- 
fenced and intersected by roads, and everything that char- 
acterized a well-to-do Southern home. • Forty-six years had 
wrought a marvellous transformation. Nearly everything 
on the surface had disappeared, except the dwelling-house, 
and that was in a dilapidated condition. The cultivated 
fields had been neglected and permitted to grow up in 
broom sedge and sassafras and persimmon and pine. 
Desolation reigned supreme. I came away sick at heart, 
regretting that I had made the visit, for all the cherished 
pictures of childhood's hfe were dispelled, and there only 
remained the saddest impression of what neglect and pov- 
erty and bad tillage had wrought." 

The new home in Talladega County was reached 
May 29, 1838, and the new life begun. The negroes, 
who had come on before the family, had been in- 
dustriously at work, and had done their work well. 
The new lands had responded to the efforts of their 
cultivators; the corn, that had been planted in the 
early spring, was already waist-high; and nature's 



34 J. L. M. CURKY, A BIOGRAPHY 

lavish gifts were everjrwhere in evidence. The 
woods were covered with verdant and luxuriant 
foliage; grapes hung from the branches of traiHng 
vines, and wild flowers blossomed in wood and wold. 
The water in the streams, flowing amid limestone 
rocks, was clear as crystal; and the whole new 
country seemed to the impressionable boy the most 
beautiful he had ever imagined. 

The newcomers found that the dwelling house was 
not completed. It was a two-story building of 
ample proportions, yet in its unfinished state it af- 
forded only scanty shelter. But the season was 
mild, and the tents that had been pitched by the 
wayside were not without their uses at the goal. 
The kindly welcome which the negro slaves gave the 
newcomers made no Httle amends for many tem- 
porary discomforts. They were at work in the fields 
by the roadside as the cavalcade from Georgia ap- 
proached; and throwing down their hoes, they 
rushed to meet their master's family with the joyous 
and noisy greeting of a careless race. 

The nomenclature of places is often as interesting 
and as significant as that of peoples and individuals; 
and not infrequently establishes historical landmarks 
that ought not to be changed or removed. Contact 
with the Indians, of which the new state had up to 
very recent times been full, had impressed the in- 
coming white settlers with the frequent appositeness 
and significance of the Indian names; and many of 
them were retained for the places and localities to 
which they had become attached. ^'Alabama'' it- 
self meant ''Here we rest;" and was no inappropriate 
appellation for the new region in the eyes of the in- 
comers. ''Talladega" meant "Border Town; " and 



ALABAMA: ^^ HERE WE REST ^» 35 

the white settlers retained it. It was a fertile spot, 
this Talladega Valley, constituting the eastern part 
of the great Coosa Valley; and a land that lent itself 
rather to the cultivation of the cereals than of cotton. 
It had been the country of the Muscogee Indians, 
later better known as Creeks. The Creek Indians 
in the War of 1812, as the Five Nations in the North 
during the Revolution, had espoused the cause of 
the invading British against the local white man. 
These Creeks had committed the atrocious massacre 
at Fort Mims; and it was not until General Andrew 
Jackson had vanquished them in the battle of the 
Horseshoe Bend, and finally by treaty restricted 
them to the Coosa Valley section, that they had 
been under control. When William Curry's family 
arrived at Kelly's Springs, in Talladega County, in 
1838, the Indians had for the most part passed out 
of Alabama, Cherokees, Chickasaws and Choctaws 
going first; and the warlike Creeks only departing 
at last, after a last stand and struggle at Pea Ridge 
in the preceding year. 

Though most of the Indians had long since de- 
parted from Alabama, and had crossed over into the 
country west of the Mississippi River, a few contin- 
ued to stay in their old country, earning a precarious 
subsistence by hunting, fishing and begging. Sev- 
eral of them were at the new home at Kelly's Springs 
when the Currys arrived; and Curry records of them 
that they were for a long time thereafter to be seen 
at the place nearly every day. They were poor and 
harmless and friendless; and he became quite fond 
of them, and soon learned to speak their language 
so as to converse with them in it. But he writes 
regretfully that their general worthlessness soon dis- 



36 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

illusioned him of the romance with which Cooper in 
his ^'Leather Stocking Tales'' had invested the figure 
of the red man. 

Yet in spite of their later degradation, these Ala- 
bama Indians had not been without the marks of a 
social and economic existence that seemed to lift 
them above the status of simple barbarism. A 
recent writer on the iron and coal industries of this 
section of Alabama says: — 

There is a tradition to the effect that a tribe of Indians 
called the Ullabees, corrupted by the whites into Hilla- 
bees, occupied the mountainous district along Talladega 
Creek, extending into the present County of Clay, and that 
these Ullabees had iron arrow heads, and various rude im- 
plements made of iron when the first settlers penetrated 
the wilds, and traded with the Ullabee clan of the Musco- 
gee Indians. 

Much of the land in this Creek country belonged 
to the United States government, and was now put 
on the market. The Federal Land Office was at 
Mardisville, near the centre of Talladega County. 
The several government tracts had been surveyed 
and laid off into sections of six hundred and forty 
acres each, and these into subdivisions of forty acres 
each. This ^' forty acres" subdivision is supposed 
to have been the origin of the limitation upon the 
expectancy of the Southern negro ex-slave in the 
matter of land in the period immediately succeed- 
ing the collapse of the Southern Confederacy. The 
concomitant mule was a suggestion original to the 
reconstruction period. 

Under the Federal statutes, this public land was 
subject to entry, with restrictions, on the payment 



ALABAMA: ^^ HEEE WE REST '» 37 

of a fixed price, at the Mardisville Land Office. The 
government, however, would accept no money in 
payment but gold and silver. The paper money of 
the period was without provision for redemption, 
and was greatly depreciated. Much extortion was 
practised by the money changers in the conversion 
of '^shinplasters^^ into specie, since speculation in 
lands had become long since in the southwest a 
.species of mania. The strange passion for town- 
building under conditions known as ^'boom,^' which 
has characterized so many sections and localities of 
the North American continent at various periods in 
its history, had twenty years earlier seized upon the 
then Territory of Alabama. 

''Now that the heart of the river basin from the Ten- 
nessee Valley to the Florida line was open to white settle- 
ment," writes the historian, "immigration came by leaps 
and bounds. The Whitney gin made cotton-raising the 
money-making industry, and planters took up much of the 
Black Belt. Town-making became the rage. Not only 
was Blakely founded across the delta as a rival to Mobile, 
and even St. Stephens had neighbors, but Wetumpka, 
Montgomery, Selma, and Tuscaloosa were laid out, be- 
sides others which were to hve only on paper. The steam- 
boat had come on the Mississippi. It was clear that in a 
short time it must solve the transportation question, and 
make of the river basin an agricultural commonwealth. 
The old times when the port which looked abroad was the 
only place of interest, had passed. Local centres were de- 
veloped over the eastern half of Mississippi territory, and 
the commerce through Mobile vastly increased. 

"The western half, with Mississippi River as its promo- 
ter, had increased even more rapidly, and in 1817 was 
erected into the State of Mississippi. The counties left 
outside became the territory of Alabama, whose legisla- 



38 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

ture met at St. Stephens as the first capitol; but, in two 
years the sentiment steadily grew that this new territory 
also was ripe for statehood." 

The main public thoroughfare of the county of 
Talladega passed in front of the door of the Curry 
homestead at Kelly's Springs, which was situated 
six miles east of Talladega, and eleven miles north- 
east of Mardisville. ''Every hour in the day and 
often through the night," writes Curry, ''a stream 
of people would be passing to and from the land 
office. All traveled on horseback, as the country 
was new, very sparsely settled, and the roads were 
few and very bad. Every traveler had his saddle- 
bags for carrying ' the specie ' as it was called. Hun- 
dreds of these land-buyers stopped with my father. 
There were no inns or public houses; and unpleasant 
as it was to entertain them, it was a necessity. The 
immigration for a few years to this part of Alabama 
was very large. The settlers were mainly from 
Tennessee, Georgia and South Carolina, but not a 
few were from North Carolina and Virginia, with a 
'sprinkhng' from New England." 

The early settlers of Alabama came from many 
directions. The valley of the Tennessee River, in 
Northern Alabama, was settled for the most part by 
Tennesseeans, and through Tennessee, by Virginians. 
The Georgians came down the Coosa Valley, and back 
of them the North and South Carolinians filled the 
central section; while the southern part of the state 
was populated by settlers from every direction. 
From the Northern States came several thousand 
New England business men. 

One colony, consisting of French exiles, who had fol- 
lowed the fortunes of Napoleon until his downfall, founded 



ALABAMA: ^^ HERE WE REST '» 39 

on the Tombigbie River, a town which they called Demop- 
olis, in what later became Marengo County. 

This heterogeneous people had, as well might be 
expected, the characteristic virtues and vices of 
frontier settlers. They exercised a ready and gen- 
erous hospitality, a neighborly kindness, and an 
unfailing and invincible self-reliance. They en- 
couraged the propagation of religion; and Baptists, 
Methodists, Congregationalists and Presbyterians 
established their churches and flourished in greater 
or less degree from the beginning of the earlier settle- 
ments. The eccentric Lorenzo Dow, whose intro- 
duction of camp-meetings into England had resulted 
in primitive Methodism there, and who is said to 
have preached to more persons than any man of his 
time, had been the first minister on the Tombigbie 
River as far back as 1803. The Alabama settlers 
brought with them, too, the knowledge and practice 
of political and civil institutions; but withal, they 
had the recklessness of the frontiersman, and were 
quick to resort to weapons to avenge wrong or insult. 

A recent historian has declared that 

the Virginians were the least practical of the settlers and 
the Georgians the most so, while the North Carolinians 
were a happy medium. The Georgians were noted for 
their stubborn persistence, and they usually succeeded 
in whatever they undertook. The Virginians liked a 
leisurely planter's life with abundant social pleasures. 
The Tennesseeans and Kentuckians were hardly dis- 
tinguishable from the Virginians and Carolinians, to 
whom they were closely related. The northern profes- 
sional and business men exercised an influence more than 
commensurate with their numbers, being, in a way, picked 
men. Neither the Georgians nor the Virginians were 



40 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

assertive office-seekers, but the Carolinians liked to hold 
office, and the politics of the state were moulded by the 
South Carolinians and Georgians. All were naturally 
inclined to favor a weak federal administration and a 
strong state government with much liberty of the indi- 
vidual. The theories of Patrick Henry, Jefferson, and 
Calhoun, not those of Washington and John Marshall, 
formed the political creed of the Alabamians. 

At the time of William Curry's settlement in 
Talladega, cotton was the chief agricultural product. 
The town of Wetumpka, seventy miles to the south 
on the Coosa River, was the market town for the 
cotton crops of the section. Wagons drawn by oxen 
or mules or horses carried down the cotton over 
rough roads, and fetched back sugar, salt, coffee, 
iron, rope and bagging, or merchandise for the stores. 
Curry, as a boy, used to go with his father's wagons 
occasionally, and would sometimes be thus absent 
from home for eight or ten days at a time. There 
was so much hauling over them, that the few roads, 
poor always at their best, would periodically become 
almost impassable. Some wag is said to have posted 
up, in these early days, a bulletin by the side of one 
of the Alabama quagmire roads, to the following 
effect : — 

This road is not passable, — 

Not even jackassable. 

So when you travel, 

Take your own gravel. 

The cost of transporting the cotton crop to market 
interfered very largely with the profits of planting. 
Sometimes boats were built, and, loaded with cotton, 
were floated down the rivers in the freshets, as log- 
gers in a lumber country float their logs down stream. 



ALABAMA: ^^ HEEE WE REST'' 41 

William Curry continued to conduct in Alabama, 
as he had done in Georgia, a country store as an 
adjunct to the raising of crops on the plantation. 
In a country where the monetary circulating me- 
dium, poor and depreciated as it was, was insufficient 
in quantity, business was conducted largely upon 
ledger credits. The country storekeeper sold his 
neighbors and customers the supplies of various 
kinds which his wagons brought up from Wetumpka 
over the bottomless roads, and '^charged'' them in 
personal accounts upon his books. As an inevitable 
consequence many of these accounts were never 
paid; and William Curry's indulgence of his debtors, 
during a long period of conducting the business of 
a country merchant, resulted in the loss to him of 
many thousands of dollars. 

As was frequently the case, the United States 
Post-office was located at the country store; and 
young Jabez assisted his father, who was postmaster 
at Kelly's Springs, in handling the mails, and in con- 
ducting the business of the office with the Depart- 
ment at Washington. The day of uniform postal 
rates and postage stamps had not yet arrived. 
Envelopes were little known. The writer of a letter 
was taught, when a pupil at the ^'old field school," 
the art of folding and sealing it so as to leave proper 
outside space for the address, with the same assiduity 
as that with which he was instructed in the art of 
making the quill pen with which the epistle was in- 
dited. The introduction of the now universally 
used envelope, with its accompanying mucilage, 
made adhesive by the moisture of the tongue, was 
greatly deprecated by the letter writers of this 
earlier period; and it is recorded of John Randolph 



42 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

of Roanoke that, upon the receipt of a letter in such 
a covering, he inveighed bitterly against his corre- 
spondent for ^'sending him his spittle." The period 
of the post-office in the country store at Kelly's 
Springs ^^was," writes Curry in later years, ^'before 
the days of penny postage, and letters were charged 
six and a quarter, twelve and a half, eighteen and 
three quarters, twenty-five, and thirty-seven and a 
half cents, according to weight or distance carried. 
Prepayment was not compulsory." 

Preachers in Talladega in those days, records 
Curry, '^were not too numerous." There were only 
three Presbyterian ministers in the county. These 
were Messrs. Cater, Chapman, and McAlpine, names 
unknown to fame, but all doubtless faithful servants 
and laborers in a vineyard where the harvest must 
have offered abundant opportunity of service and 
accomplishment. 

"Baptists and Methodists," says Curry, "as they usu- 
ally do, performed all the pioneer missionary work. I re- 
call such Baptist ministers as Chilton, Henderson, Welch, 
Taliaferro, McCain, Archer, Pace, Collins, Wood. Camp- 
meetings were held every year." 

Mr. Finn, the Irish teacher at '^ Double Branches," 
back in Georgia, had been invited by the elder Curry 
to adventure his fortunes in the new country; and 
the invitation had been eagerly accepted by the 
sprightly schoolmaster. Finn doubtless accom- 
panied the family in their migration across country; 
for it appears that on the day following the arrival of 
the Curry s at Kelly's Springs, the business of edu- 
cating the younger members of the family was 
promptly taken up. Mr. Finn opened his school, 



ALABAMA: ** HERE WE REST '^ 43 

and the children renewed their studies, their number 
being gradually augmented by the advent of the 
children of the nearest neighbors. Jabez continued 
his lessons in Latin, Greek, Algebra, and Geometry; 
and stood well in his classes. 

" The school was mixed," he writes, "composed of boys 
and girls. All the schools I ever attended, except the one 
at Willington, South Carolina, were such; and I here de- 
sire to record my decided opinion and my emphatic testi- 
mony in favor of the co-education of the sexes." 

This outspoken opinion of Curry's was written in 
the early part of the year 1876, after long consider- 
ation and mature conclusion, in a life of which the 
subject of education had even then filled no insig- 
nificant part; and he never wavered in his faith. 
His ^' Diary" for 1889 shows him still the champion 
of co-education in the discussion among the Trustees 
of the college in Virginia, of which he was one, in 
the fall and winter of that year. It was a cause 
whose advocacy was not always popular in southern 
communities; but it was characteristic of the man's 
courage, and of his fidelity to ideals once deliberately 
established, that he was always outspoken in its 
maintenance. 

Although, as has been heretofore stated, the pop- 
ulation of the young state was perhaps too raw, and 
at all events too busy to care very much about 
politics, there were offices to be filled and officials to 
be voted for; and in 1838 and 1839 young Curry 
heard for the first time the voice of the political 
candidate, Uterally, ^'upon the stump;" for the 
origin of the American phrase, synonymous with the 
more formal and dignified but no less expressive 



44 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

English term, '' on the hustings/^ arose from the 
custom of the frontier poUtician and orator address- 
ing his audience from the convenient altitude of 
the new-made stump, from which had just been 
felled the majestic body of some great forest tree. 

^^ Harvey W. Ellis and George W. Crabb were 
candidates for Congress," Curry writes, in recalling 
the occasion. Crabb was elected as a Whig, ''and I 
remember that in alluding to the subject of slavery, 
the candidates did so with bated breath." Mere 
human prescience could not well imagine an economic 
order surviving under different labor conditions, with 
the blacks free and unhindered to do as they would; 
but the burden of ownership of human beings some- 
how rested on the spirit of a society naturally very 
kindly and devoted to freedom. It is a very dull 
intelligence that does not perceive the impasse 
into which these men had been led by the com- 
mercialism and the compromises of other genera- 
tions. No wonder the subject was mentioned with 
bated breath, for tragedy or ruin seemed to guard 
every gateway of solution; and they felt the tense- 
ness of the situation in their nerves if they did not 
dare to utter it with their tongues. 



CHAPTER III 

ATHENIAN DAYS 

One of the earliest acts of the legislature of the 
new State of Alabama was to establish, on Decem- 
ber 18, 1820, a State University. The act of estab- 
lishment donated to the purposes of the University 
forty-six thousand acres of land, which had been ap- 
propriated to educational purposes in the Federal 
statute establishing the new government; and Tus- 
caloosa having been selected as the site of the Uni- 
versity in 1827, work was commenced upon the 
buildings, and the institution was opened for the 
admission of students in 1831. 

It might naturally be supposed that William 
Curry would have sent his sons for a college educa- 
tion to the University of his adopted State; but, 
though no college-bred man himself, his intellectual 
associations had in a certain sense been with the 
leading educational institution of the State of his old 
home. He had known many of its graduates; and 
his predilections were all in favor of Franklin Col- 
lege, at Athens, Georgia. Thus it was that in Au- 
gust, 1839, Jabez Curry, together with his brother 
Jackson and their stepbrother, David H. Remsen, 
entered Franklin College, an institution which had 
had its origins in 1785 in a State charter, appropri- 
ating certain lands, and authorizing a University, 
which was located at Athens in 1801 as ^'Franklin 

45 



4:6 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

College"; and which grew later into the present 
University of Georgia. 

Of the reasons why this particular institution was 
chosen for him, and of his matriculation there, 
Curry, writing in after years, suggests the follow- 
ing:— 

It would have been much better for me to have gone to 
the University of Alabama; but the institution had had 
troubles, and my father cherished an attachment for his 
native state. David and Jackson entered the Sophomore 
class. I, because of my insufficient age, was put into the 
Freshman class, and very properly; although on my ex- 
amination I was declared capable of entering a higher 
class. A great mistake had been made in my previous 
education. Instead of studying English branches, and 
learning Grammar, Arithmetic and Geography, I was at 
an early age put to learning Latin and Greek, to the neglect 
of more important and elementary studies. 

The journey of the boys from Kelly's Springs to 
Athens was made in a carriage, and occupied five 
days. The route, which was followed thereafter in 
later trips from college, home, and back again, tra- 
versed the spot where has since grown up the great 
and prosperous city of Atlanta. 

''When I first passed there," says Curry, "there was 
not a house, or the hope of a village. As the meeting- 
point of the Georgia and Western Atlantic Railways, the 
town had its origin in 1841, and was called Marthasville, 
after a daughter of Wilson Lumpkin, the Governor. 
. . . As I passed to and fro . . . the city sprang 
up as by magic. During the War, while a soldier, I was 
encamped where I had several times traveled when a col- 
lege boy. I have been familiar, in peace and in war, with 
its rapid growth." 



ATHENIAN DAYS 47 

His room at the University was No. 23 in the new 
college, — a fact as worthy of commemoration on the 
part of those who value and appreciate his great ser- 
vices in the cause of Southern education, as is the 
similar record by literature-lovers of the tiny college- 
dwelling-place of a great American poet, in the Uni- 
versity of Virginia, that is lettered in bronze over the 
door: '^Parva domus magni poetaej^ Here, in No. 
23, Curry lived and studied during three of his four 
formative years at Athens. Together with David 
Remsen, and his brother Jackson, he joined the Phi 
Kappa Debating Society. There was another col- 
lege society for the cultivation of debate among the 
students; but the lads, with patriotic zeal, chose the 
Phi Kappa, because it had been and was the custom 
of most of the students from Alabama to belong to 
it. He records '^& noble rivalry" between that soci- 
ety and the Demosthenean. ^^They met," he writes, 
'4n their respective halls on Saturday mornings, and 
kept their proceedings entirely secret. The debates 
were conducted with much spirit. Through my col- 
lege course I gave much attention to my debating 
society; and whatever success I have achieved as a 
speaker is very largely attributable to my training 
in this school." It is singular how the rise of new 
interests in a more complex day and especially the 
exaltation of athletic exercises have caused the 
forensic habit to languish and dwindle. 

There can be little doubt that Curry's facility of 
expression as a speaker, and the power which he 
illustrated at an early date in his public career of 
holding the attention of his audiences, came from the 
admirable and diligent practice of the arts of the 
speaker in the debating society at Athens. He 



48 J. L. M. CUEEY, A BIOGRAPHY 

writes at a later date than that of the foregoing ex- 
tract from his journal a reiterated expression of his 
belief in the great benefit which he derived from this 
part of his college education. 

Every student was a member of one or the other of these 
organizations. The competition, the rivalry, was strong 
but gentlemanly. Each met every Saturday morning, and 
questions previously selected were debated with ardor and 
profit, sometimes into the night. I must bear emphatic 
testimony to the value of these exercises upon my subse- 
quent career. The first Greek letter society was organized 
while I was a student; but I must question whether these 
select clubs have not had a harmful influence upon the 
more useful literary societies. 

It is interesting to observe the curriculum and 
methods at that time prevailing at Franklin College. 

"The curriculum," he writes, "was of the old-fashioned 
kind; Latin, Greek and Mathematics predominating, with 
very little science; and the teaching was chiefly of the 
text-book order. Prof. C. F. McCoy, one of the best teach- 
ers I ever knew, 'kicked out of the traces,' and strove with 
some success to make his department of Mathematics and 
Mechanical Philosophy to conform to what is now univer- 
sally accepted as a necessity of liberal education. English 
was ignored. Such text-books as Day's Mathematics, 
Comstock's Geology, Say's Political Economy, Hedge's 
Logic, Upham's Mental Science, and Paley's Moral Phi- 
losophy were used. McCoy published for his class a Cal- 
culus of his own; and a published lecture on 'Matter' 
created a local sensation, being regarded for its exposition 
of ' potency ' as a long stride towards materialism. Look- 
ing back from present surroundings and the great progress 
of college education and all teaching (circa 1901) I am con- 
strained to say, with undiminished loyalty for my Alma 
Mater, that, McCoy excepted, the President and Profes- 



ATHENIAN DAYS 49 

sors in teaching power were not up to modern standards. 
Nevertheless, the institution was of a soUd character, the 
relation between Faculty and students was most pleasant, 
and the four years at college were among the most pleas- 
ant and profitable of a long life." 

A striking feature of Curry^s various written 
memoranda is his insistence on the value of instruc- 
tion in English, whether in the elementary and sec- 
ondary schools or in the college curriculum. To this 
theory of his he gave vigorous and successful prac- 
tical form in his early teaching days in Richmond. 
''Dr. J. L. M. Curry, later Minister to Spain," 
writes Dr. John Bell Henneman of him in a paper on 
''English Studies in the South, '^ published after 
Curry's death, "patron of letters, and lifelong dev- 
otee of educational interests, opened a course in 
English at Richmond College almost before the 
smoke of battle about the Confederate capitol had 
fairly cleared away." About the same time Prof. 
Thomas R. Price inaugurated a similar work at 
Randolph-Macon College; and Dr. Noah K. Davis 
had established a chair of English at Bethel, Ken- 
tucky, some months before that at Richmond. To 
all three of these pioneers in one of the greatest 
fields of college and university work, be accorded 
praise and credit. 

This work of English development in the southern 
colleges, in the period immediately succeeding the 
War between the States, was a notable one; and the 
names of many other English teachers in the South 
are worthy of being placed alongside those of Curry, 
Price and Davis. But, after all is said, the distinc- 
tion of having been the real pioneer in historical 
English work, not only in the southern colleges, but 



50 J. L. M. CUREY, A BIOGRAPHY 

throughout America, belongs to the many-sided 
genius of Thomas Jefferson. 

*'He acquired," says Dr. Henneman, ''as a law-student, 
an enthusiasm for the study of Anglo-Saxon, and contin- 
ued its advocacy as a definite part of the college curricu- 
lum, from 1779, when he was a member of the board for 
William and Mary, until 1825, when the wishes of a life- 
time were at last realized by the opening of his pet cre- 
ation, the University of Virginia. Jefferson had actually 
written out, seven years before, what is now a curious 
synopsis of an Anglo-Saxon grammar with specimen ex- 
tracts for his new institution; and this was the first formal 
incorporation of a course in historical Enghsh in an Ameri- 
can University, however meagre and defective a course of 
one or two hours a week in itself was." 

Other influences than those of the curriculum and 
of books were making their educative effect felt upon 
the young college student at Athens in these signifi- 
cant years. Lafayette Lamar, his cousin, a youth 
of early poetic promise, cut down by death before 
fruition when a soldier in the first year of the War 
between the States, entered college the same day 
with him; and during their college career they were 
classmates and warm friends. 

"Among my fellow-students," he wrote, after the lapse 
of sixty years, ''I recall James D. Pope, now Professor of 
Law in South Carolina College; William Williams, Pro- 
fessor in the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; T. 
R. R. Cobb, killed at Fredericksburg, the most talented 
young man I ever knew; Sam Hall, Judge of the Supreme 
Court; Ben Hill, distinguished as lawyer, statesman and 
orator; Judges Pottle and Bartlett; Felton, Representa- 
tive in Congress; Joseph LeConte, Linton H. Stephens, 
and others well-known at the bar, in the pulpit and legisla- 



ATHENIAN DAYS 51 

tive councils. . . . LeConte became the most dis- 
tinguished of all my fellow collegians as an author and a 
scientist." 

Of Benjamin Harvey Hill, orator and statesman, 
whose political career is comparatively recent, it is 
scarcely more than necessary to mention here the 
facts that he served in the Senate of the Confederate 
States, and after the War was a Congressman and 
Senator from Georgia; and that he was one of the 
most conspicuous of American orators and patriots. 

Long after their boyish association at Athens, 
Curry wrote to his old college-mate, LeConte, then 
at the University of California, a letter to which the 
following is the reply. The postscript of this com- 
munication possesses a peculiar interest, in view of 
the tremendous and fateful experience of San Fran- 
cisco and other California cities, some twenty years 
later. 

University of California, 

Berkeley, California, May 30, 1887. 
Rev. J. L. M. Curry, 

My dear Sir: — Your letter received this morning was a 
great surprise and pleasure to me. I, too, have followed 
your career and rejoice in your success. I remember with 
pleasure Jabe Curry, the most boyish and yet one of the 
brightest of my college-mates. I remember the very active 
part you always took in the debates of the Phi Kappa So- 
ciety, and how I envied your readiness, so strangely con- 
trasted with my own painful shyness. I have, of course, 
gotten over this in a great measure ; — only enough remains 
to make me always careful to make thorough preparation 
for even class lectures, — much more, public lectures. 

My life has indeed been a happy one in all its relations. 
I have enough to satisfy my simple wants. My activity is 
in a field which is in the highest degree pleasant, and which 



52 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

does not pall on the taste. My domestic life has been full 
of love to wife and children and grandchildren. I have 
had much to be thankful for, and I hope I am thankful. 

If you have followed my writings, especially in the 
Princeton Review, you are doubtless aware of my position 
on the great questions of ''Evolution and its relation to 
rehgious thought.'' I really feel very deeply on this sub- 
ject. I herewith send you a little pamphlet on the sub- 
ject. Perhaps most of it you have seen before, but not all. 
You must not draw any inference from the fact that it was 
pubhshed by Unitarians. I am still a Presbyterian, but I 
do a good deal of independent thinking of my own. I am 
aware that some will think that my views tend toward 
Pantheism; but I had no time to answer this impHcation. 
I have just written a small book on this subject. It will 
try to answer briefly three questions — 1. What is Evolu- 
tion? 2. What are the evidences of its truth? 3. What 
effect will it have on traditional views, and on religious 
thought generally? In this book I will answer the Pan- 
theistic objection. I hope Appleton will bring it out in the 
autumn. 

I shall be glad, very glad, to hear from you again, and to 
hear more about your personal concerns. For I would 
gladly revive my interest in one whom I admired even as a 
boy. 

Very sincerely yours, 

Joseph LeConte. 

P. S. — We have just received two or three first class 
seismographs. Wanted, an earthquake to record. They 
are rather scarce about here just now. If you have any to 
spare, send them on. 

Jos. LeConte. 

Curry was in Spain when he received this letter; 
and LeConte did not live to see the great Californian 
earthquake, which equalled many of the most terrible 



ATHENIAN DAYS 53 

that have occurred in the history of the Spanish 
Peninsula. LeConte, who was born in Liberty 
County, Georgia, in 1823, died in the Yosemite Val- 
ley in 1901, nearly two years before the death of 
Curry. He was one of the greatest of American 
scientists; and while his foremost work was in the 
field of geology, he did much to popularize science 
by his contributions to the literature of many of its 
branches. He was a teacher and professor succes- 
sively in Oglethorpe College; in his alma mater, 
Franklin College, where he and Curry had been 
classmates; in South Carolina College; and in the 
University of California, wherej_he occupied the 
chair of geology, botany and natural history from 
its establishment in 1869, to the date of his death. 
Linton Stephens, who became a prominent lawyer 
and judge in Georgia, was another of Curry's college- 
mates at Athens. He had been left an orphan at 
the age of three; and it was at the cost and expense 
of his brother, Alexander H. Stephens, that Linton 
pursued his studies at Athens. After graduating, 
he studied law at Harvard and in the University of 
Virginia, and achieved distinction as a judge of the 
Supreme Court of the State. He also served as a 
colonel in the Confederate army, and died at Sparta, 
Georgia, in 1872. His famous brother, Alexander 
H. Stephens, later the Vice-President of the Con- 
federate States, and one of the ablest vindicators of 
that ill-starred government in his history entitled 
^'The War between the States," used to come oc- 
casionally to Athens to see his younger brother and 
protege, Linton; and it was on the occasion of one 
of these visits that Curry first met him and made his 
acquaintance. He had then been a practising law- 



54 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

yer only about four years; but was already on the 
high-tide of a great law practice. In 1834, he had 
been admitted to the bar of his native State of 
Georgia. It is said that in the first year of his 
practice he lived on six dollars a week, and made 
four hundred dollars from his cases that year. It 
was not long, however, before he owned the old 
family homestead at Crawfordsville, and had pur- 
chased the estate which afterwards became widely 
known in his possession as '^Liberty Hall.'^ Curry 
describes him at this period, as "& small, tallow- 
faced, effeminate-looking man, apparently near the 
grave." It was a physical appearance that charac- 
terized him to the end. The body was frail and 
weak, but the spirit that it encased was quenchless, 
while life lasted. This mighty and commanding 
spirit was illustrated in 1848 in a personal colHsion 
which he had at Greensboro with Judge Cone, grow- 
ing out of a political discussion of the Clayton com- 
promise measure of that year. Cone cut Stephens 
dangerously and desperately with a knife, saying: 
''Now, damn you, retract, or I'll cut your throat!" 
Covered with blood, and terribly wounded, Stephens 
answered: ''Never! cut!" grasping as he spoke the 
keen blade of Cone's knife with a right hand that 
was thenceforward maimed for life. He lived to a 
green old age, serving his country with conspicuous 
ability, and unexcelled patriotism; and until the 
day of his death was Curry's sincere and faithful 
friend. 

Other interesting acquaintances and friends that 
he made during the period of his life at Athens were 
the political orators who came thither in the Pres- 
idential campaign of 1840, between Martin Van 



ATHENIAN DAYS 55 

Buren and William Henry Harrison, to speak at the 
Saturday evening meetings which were held in the 
town hall at Athens. Among these he makes men- 
tion of William L. Mitchell, Hopkins Halsey, Junius 
Hillyer, Howell Cobb, Henry R. Jackson, and Judge 
Charles Dougherty. 

"I heard a speech," Curry writes, "impassioned and 
violent, from Mr. Jackson, and Judge Dougherty pounded 
him into mince-meat. Mr. Jackson was afterwards charge- 
d'affaires at Vienna, a judge in Georgia, and a general in 
the Confederate army. My father being a democrat, I 
became one also, and began this year to read the news- 
papers." 

Jackson's fame rests not solely upon his career as 
politician, judge and soldier. He was a poet of 
unusual distinction and literary charm, and has left 
behind him in ^Hhe written word that remains," a 
more enduring claim upon posterity than in any 
other of his accomplishments. One of his most 
beautiful lyrics, that has been not infrequently at- 
tributed by ill-informed newspaper writers to ^'Stone- 
wall" Jackson, whose knowledge or appreciation of 
poetry was probably infinitesimal, is that entitled 
''My Wife and Child," written when he was com- 
manding the ''Irish Jasper Greens," in the only 
regiment that went to the War with Mexico from 
Georgia : — 

The tattoo beats; the lights are gone; 

The camp around in slumber lies; 
The night with solemn pace moves on; 

The shadows thicken o'er the skies, 
But sleep my weary eyes hath flown, 

And sad, uneasy thoughts arise. 



56 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

About this time Curry first enjoyed the pleasure 
of seeing himself in print. He makes record of the 
fact that in December, 1841, doubtless inspired with 
his perusal of the journals so recently begun to be 
read by him, he contributed some slight anonymous 
communication to one of the papers, which was duly 
pubUshed. 

"When it appeared in print," he records, with charm- 
ing naivete, "I was as proud as Byron was when he awoke 
and found himself famous. I read the article over and 
over many times, and could hardly restrain my boisterous 
exultation. I never had been as happy. What the thing 
was about I don't know; but all subsequent successes have 
never half so elated me." 

There were other experiences of these college days 
which kept them from being monotonous, and left 
their vivid images upon the plastic mind of the young 
student. Politics and political events were begin- 
ning to assume definite shape in his thought; and re- 
curring to the period after a lapse of thirty-five 
years, he writes about Whiggery and Democracy: 

General Harrison died a month after his inauguration, 
and Vice-president Tyler succeeded him. Mr. Clay, the 
great and arbitrary leader of the Whig party, tried to carry 
out his policy of a National Bank, a Protective Tariff, Dis- 
tribution of the Proceeds of the Public Lands, &c. Con- 
gress twice passed bills establishing a Bank, and President 
Tyler twice vetoed them. During study hours I went to 
the Post-office, and learned that Tyler had sent in a second 
veto. As I passed through the campus, I hurrahed for 
Tyler; and Dr. Hall, one of the Professors, saw and heard 
me, and fined me one dollar. I thought then he did it be- 
cause he was a Whig, and was mortified at what Tyler had 
done; but I see now he was clearly right. 



ATHENIAN DAYS 57 

Age brings with it conservatism and charity; and 
Curry's final conclusion as to the real reason of this 
fine does credit to his sense of kindliness. But the 
pontics of the period were bitter, and the Whigs' 
wrath at what they were pleased to call the tergiver- 
sation of Tyler was very great. For a student to 
hurrah for any one during study hours upon the 
campus was very culpable. That he should hurrah 
for Tyler in the sight and hearing of a Whig profes- 
sor was likewise very reprehensible. After the lapse 
of time, and upon consideration of the immutabiUty 
of human nature throughout the years, who shall 
say what it was that really produced the atoning 
dollar from the pocket of the offending young col- 
legian? 

At this period of his life, too, began his acquaint- 
ance with the gentler sex. Let him narrate it: — 

During the three years I had been in college, I had 
never visited a lady. I was the least boy in the College, 
hardly weighing one hundred pounds, and I was excess- 
ively modest and timid. I was " afraid " of female society. 
I had had no sisters, grew up unfortunately among boys, 
and lacked that ease and freedom and self-poise of manner 
and ability to converse on ordinary topics,' which are such 
a necessary part of a boy's education. My own painful 
embarrassment, which has never left me, taught me a les- 
son; and now I urge young men, for many reasons, to visit 
the opposite sex. My cousin, Lafayette Lamar, and a 
classmate, Thomas W. White, later a prominent lawyer in 
Mississippi, begged me to accompany them in some of 
their visits. I resolved to go, and for days before the time 
arrived I thought about it, and it weighed on me like a 
nightmare. It seems ludicrous now to recall my feelings; 
but I have since gone into battle with far less tremor and 
agitation than I experienced in anticipation of a visit. 



58 J. L. M. CUEEY, A BIOGRAPHY 

The President of the College, Dr. Alonzo Church, had 
some beautiful and accomplished daughters, who were 
great favorites. I knew them very well by sight, — saw 
them nearly every day, — and determined to begin with 
them. The appointed night came. Urging my cousin not 
to stay to a late hour, and to help me in the event of my 
failing in conversation, I ''crossed the Rubicon." The 
ladies, quite skilled in drawing out young men, with a 
kindness which I gratefully record now, so helped me that 
an hour passed very agreeably, and I have never been 
called upon to pass through just such an ordeal since. 

The Rubicon once crossed, the ladies of the col- 
lege town came to have the pleasure of his company 
not infrequently; and in consequence he was able to 
testify afterwards that ^Hhe last six months of my 
college life were by far the most pleasant of my 
whole four years. '^ 

In August, 1842, Jackson Curry graduated from 
the college. Usually at commencement there were 
two days for original speeches, one for juniors rising 
senior, and one for the honor graduates. Eight or 
ten of the juniors who had the best standing in their 
classes were elected by the Faculty as junior orators. 
On this occasion Jabez Curry was one of the chosen 
number, and delivered a highly eulogistic address on 
Andrew Jackson. When he returned to college after 
the next winter vacation, which lasted from Novem- 
ber 1st to January 15th, he took lodgings outside the 
college, in town, so as to live more comfortably, and 
at the same time to have a more complete control of 
his time. From this period, until the close of his 
college career at Athens, his industry and applica- 
tion were very great. He studied with much per- 
sistence and purpose, and averaged from twelve to 



ATHENIAN DAYS 59 

fourteen hours a day at his work. In consequence of 
a deficiency in mathematics, he was fearful of not 
being able to graduate, and it was to this branch of 
learning that he especially applied himself during 
these last college months. He was consumed with 
the almost morbid feeling that to fail of graduation 
after having filled the distinguished position of 
junior orator involved a deep and abiding disgrace. 
But, happily, the conclusion of the final examinations 
demonstrated him to be abreast of the requirements; 
and he received his diploma as a graduate in August, 
1843. In the classics he had approved himself among 
the first. In political economy, mental philosophy, 
and other subjects which do not involve a serious 
knowledge of mathematics, he had experienced no 
difficulty. By intense application and judicious cul- 
tivation, he had acquired a tenacious memory, which 
enabled him upon occasion to recite as many as from 
ten to fifteen pages of a book verbatim. This capac- 
ity is not infrequently an accompaniment of the 
linguistic talent; but it was not in that direction 
alone that he prevailed, for he learned his mathe- 
matics as those do not learn it who rely solely on 
memory. 

In the distribution of academic honors at the con- 
clusion of his four years' term, the four leading dis- 
tinctions fell, in order, to Linton Stephens, Thomas 
White, Jabez Curry and Lafayette Lamar. Their 
bestowal reversed the trite and long-standing aphor- 
ism that a boy's college-career may not be taken as a 
prognostic of what he will do later in Hfe. All of 
these four young men, save one who died with the 
pathetic promise of youth unfulfilled, became dis- 
tinguished men. The college lad who succeeds in 



60 J. L. M. CUERY, A BIOGRAPHY 

later years may sometimes fail of his college honors; 
but the exception proves the rule that, in some one 
way or other, he has made and left his mark upon 
the student-body, or upon the college life. 

Jabez was again elected orator. He chose for his 
theme, the thought which very often gets close to 
the consciousness of the boy who stands, at his grad- 
uation, face to face with life's opening career; and is 
illustrated in Byron's lines, which prefaced young 
Curry's final oration: 

No more, no more, oh, never more on me. 
The freshness of the heart shall fall like dew. 

''I do not remember a word of the speech," he wrote in 
1876. ''In delivering it, I was applauded, while speaking 
and at the close. The former applause was exceptional." 



CHAPTER IV 

HAKVARD AND NEW ENGLAND INFLUENCES 

With his graduation from college Curry faced 
the momentous question of what path he should 
next pursue. Upon his return home, the problem 
was discussed, during the month succeeding his de- 
parture from Athens, by his family and friends in 
Talladega, and was thoughtfully pondered and con- 
sidered by himself. 

"My father proposed to send me to Germany to con- 
tinue my collegiate studies," he wrote many years later, 
''but, in my unwisdom, I yielded to the persuasions of rela- 
tives, and went in September, 1843, to Cambridge, Massa- 
chusetts, and entered the Dane Law School of Harvard 
College." 

His father's proposition to send him to Germany 
indicated not only the broad view of life which the 
country planter and storekeeper entertained, and his 
unerring recognition of his son's unusual talents, 
but proves no less that planting and store-keeping 
had been profitable employments in William Curry's 
case; for in those days to educate a son in Europe 
was no insignificant tax upon the financial means of 
Southern Americans. The University of Virginia 
had been in successful operation for eighteen years, 
and thither Curry's fellow-graduate, Linton Ste- 
phens, went to pursue his studies; but many people 

61 



62 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

regarded the discipline of the ^^ honor system ^^ at 
Charlottesville as too lax for young men; and the 
stream of Southern youths in the direction of Har- 
vard and Yale and Princeton, that had antedated 
the opening of Jefferson's seminary of learning, con- 
tinued to flow North, in spite of political rancor 
and the fiery gospel of anti-slavery, up to the very 
outbreak of the War between the States. 

Young Curry begun his journey northward in 
September of the year of his graduation from Athens. 
It was a memorable, and in many respects, a liberal- 
izing journey. He went by private conveyance from 
his father's house, over the famiUar route to Athens; 
and thence proceeded by rail to Augusta. It was 
with no light heart that he undertook and pursued 
his way northward. ''I had no experience as a trav- 
eller," he writes, ''and in those days travelling was 
not as easy and common as now." 

It was still a period of stage coaches, and corduroy 
roads, and primitive wayside inns, with now and 
then a typical specimen of the early ''snakehead rail- 
road." Curry has left an entertaining account of 
these means and methods of the locomotion of that 
day, in an article written by him in 1901, and pub- 
lished by the Southern History Association, under 
the title of ''The South in Olden Times." 

In my boyish days, railways were few and short. In 
Alabama, in 1843, there were only two, one around Muscle 
Shoals, and the other between Montgomery and Franklin; 
and it was put down on string-pieces with flat iron bars, 
which torn up by wheels occasionally projected into the 
cars, impaling passengers on what were termed "snake- 
heads." In 1843, en route to Harvard, I travelled from 
Augusta to Charleston by rail, built nearly all the way on 



HAEVAED AND N. E. INFLUENCES 63 

trestle-work, and by steamer from Charleston to Wilming- 
ton. Much travel in those days was on horseback, or in 
hacks, or picturesque stage-coaches, which signalled their 
arrival in towns and villages, and notified the taverns of 
the number of their passengers by long tin horns, or by 
making more ambitious music on bugles. The stage- 
drivers knew every body on the road, carried packages and 
messages, and were sometimes the confidants of country 
lasses and bashful beaux. The bonifaces are often drawn 
in character-sketches; but the stage-driver of the olden 
time, a typical class, has escaped portraiture by pen and 
pencil. Romances of the road are unused material. 

He stopped on his way North for a few hours in 
Augusta, Georgia, where he had once visited before 
he left Lincoln County. 

"Being a mere lad," he records of this visit, "I remem- 
bered only two things, — a big candy store, and a steam- 
boat that plied on the Savannah River between Augusta 
and Savannah. From Augusta I had to go to Charles- 
ton. The railroad was built entirely on trestle work, and 
not by excavation and embankment, as now. At Aiken, a 
little town which has since become noted as a resort for 
invahds, there was an inclined plane ; and an engine, going 
down a parallel track, by means of very large ropes drew 
the train to the summit of the hill. The country west of 
Charleston was dreary enough. The swamps and cypress- 
trees and aUigators were quite novel. At Charleston I took 
a steamboat for Wilmington, reaching there just at sunrise. 
I was not seasick. Before the lines of railroad were com- 
pleted, all the travel from Alabama and Georgia to the 
North had to be done on this route between the cities by 
water. I travelled by rail from Wilmington to Weldon, 
and thence to Portsmouth in Virginia. The long white 
pines in North Carolina, and the tar, pitch and turpen- 
tine, made an impression on me. From Portsmouth I was 



64 J. L. M. CUERY, A BIOGRAPHY 

carried up the Chesapeake Bay by steamer to Baltimore, 
thence by rail to New York, stopping at a hotel on 
Broadway, where, to my surprise, the guests were all 
furnished at dinner with ice-cream! The Astor House 
was, I think, not then built; and where the Fifth 
Avenue now is, was out of town. I went through 
Long Island Sound by steamer to some point in Rhode 
Island, where I took a railroad and was carried to Bos- 
ton. From Boston I went to Cambridge in an omni- 
bus that plied regularly between the towns, and was 
driven by one Moss, whom the Boston Post proposed, 
on account of his thirty years' faithful services, to honor 
with the title of D.D. — Doctor of Drivers. At Cambridge 
I found my cousin, William Curry, of Perry County, Ala- 
bama, a student of law." 

A very short time after his arrival, he matricu- 
lated as a student in the famous Dane Law School, 
which has been in its career as distinguished for the 
eminence of its professors as for the greatness 
achieved by so many of its students. It had been 
founded in 1829, and named for its founder, accord- 
ing to whose stipulation Joseph Story was elected 
its first ■ )_ jfessor. The year before there had been 
only one « ^^ student in Harvard College. In 1829, 
under Stoi.' the attendance in the Dane Law School 
was thirty ., and thenceforward its numbers steadily 
increased. When Curry entered it in 1843, there 
were about one hundred and fifty law students. 
Story, then a Justice of the Supreme Court of the 
United States, still continued a professor in the 
school ; and his illustrious associate was Simon Green- 
leaf, author of the '^ Law of Evidence." Curry makes 
mention of Story's genial humor and cordiahty, 
which contributed scarcely less than his great abil- 



HAEVARD AND N. E. INFLUENCES 65 

ity to his wonderful success as a teacher of law. 
Story, on one occasion, introduced his colleague to 
an audience with an inimitable wit: ^'Ladies and gen- 
tlemen, Mr. Professor Greenleaf: The best evidence 
of his law is his Law of Evidence." It is related of 
him, too, that at some public function, he toasted 
Mr. Edward Everett as follows : — 

Eloquence flows 
Where Ever-ett goes; 

to which the latter promptly repHed: — 

However high one may climb in the legal profession in 
this Commonwealth, he will always find one Story higher. 

A writer in the Green Bag, a Boston publication 
of the lighter sort for lawyers, who was a con- 
temporary of Curry's in the Law School at Harvard, 
writes of Story as a teacher of law : 

I had not enjoyed a sight of him until, as a law student, 
I confronted him at his professional desk. I lost attention 
to that first lecture in contemplating the great jurist, and 
in musing upon my knowledge of what he had achieved. 
When he presided at the moot-courts which he had estab- 
lished for the nisi prius practice of the students, or for 
their views upon a stated controversy, generally patterned 
from some case in his circuit, Professor Story was the em- 
bodiment of geniality, and seemed as pleased with the pro- 
ceedings as would be a child at blindman's buff. His 
constant tenet to students was 'Hhe nobility and attract- 
iveness of the legal profession." 

Of his two law-teachers in the Dane School, Curry 
has left this interesting minute : — 

Judge Story was a genial, cheerful, cordial man, full of 
humor and anecdote, very fond of the boys, and told us in 



66 J. L. M. CUERY, A BIOGRAPHY 

his lectures charming incidents about such lawyers as 
Webster and Mason and William Pinkney, and Sargeant 
and Binney. Simon Greenleaf, a native of Maine, was 
chosen professor on recommendation of Judge Story. 
Without the affluence of learning or ornate diction of 
Judge Story, he was a more painstaking and accurate 
lawyer, with keener analysis and more logical power. He 
was quite popular, but stricter than his colleague, to whom 
he was deeply attached. 

The scene, the intellectual atmosphere, the asso- 
ciations of instructors and companions, were all alike 
inspiring to the eager and impressionable mind of the 
young Southerner. It was the beginning of that 
characteristic Americanism, which grew and devel- 
oped in him thenceforward as long as he lived; and 
which made him, while clinging tenaciously to the 
political concepts of the Calhoun theory of the Con- 
stitution, even after the real destruction of that 
theory by the event of war, as loyal to the government 
that had come to be based on other and adverse prin- 
ciples, as he had ever been to that which sought to 
perpetuate the Calhoun interpretation and failed. 

Josiah Quincy was then President of Harvard Col- 
lege. Story and Greenleaf were illuminating the 
minds of their pupils with the splendor of their in- 
tellects and the richness of their knowledge. Anson 
Burlingame, Rutherford B. Hayes, Thomas J. 
Semmes, and many other men of subsequent dis- 
tinction were among his classmates; while the New 
England air was vibrant with the stirring politics, 
the intellectual thought, and the unconventional 
religious ideas which characterized the Massachu- 
setts of the period. Curry devoted himself with 
great industry to his law studies, and did a very 



HARVAED AND N. E. INFLUENCES 67 

considerable amount of miscellaneous reading. The 
libraries teemed with all sorts of books, and to them 
the students of the college had general access. 
Macaulay stirred him as with a trumpet-note: — 

"Macaulay's Miscellanies, as they were then called," he 
writes, ''were published in cheap form; and I read and re- 
read them with increasing profit and admiration. Few 
books have more affected my style and thought." 

But books and lectures and law-studies were in- 
sufficient, in that keen air, to fill the measure of the 
young man's developing and eager thought. He 
went to hear the professors in the academic schools. 
Longfellow had just finished ''The Spanish Student," 
and was discharging the duties of his professor- 
ship. Lowell was editing the Pioneer magazine in 
Boston, with Poe, Hawthorne, Elizabeth Barrett 
Browning, Whittier and WiUiam Wetmore Story 
among its contributors; Jared Sparks was teaching 
history in Harvard, and Curry sat at his feet as at 
the feet of Gamaliel; while Wendell Phillips and 
WilHam Lloyd Garrison and ''The Liberator" were 
making history throughout America. In the na- 
tional capitol at Washington, John Quincy Adams 
was pouring into the hopper of legislation the ever 
disappearing, but none the less fatal, "abolition 
petitions." John C. Calhoun, with logical exactness 
and prophetic foresight, was philosophizing upon 
the construction of the Federal Constitution, and 
foretelling the doom to come. Macready and For- 
rest and Charlotte Cushman and the elder Booth 
were playing to cultivated and intellectual audiences 
in the theatres of Boston; and Theodore Parker and 
Dr. Kirk and Dr. Walker were preaching in the 



68 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

churches the word of God according to the gospel 
of Boston. It was a period and an atmosphere 
worthy of the beginnings of the mental and spiritual 
life of a young man of such talents and ambitions as 
Curry's. Hawthorne, whose artist's soul was dis- 
pleased by the strident clamor and obtrusive senti- 
mentalism of the time, said that every other man 
one met had in his vest pocket a scheme for the 
reformation of the universe. It was indeed a time 
when New England was swept by a passion of 
humanitarianism and social sympathy. 

Curry attended the theatres when he could, and 
witnessed the great reproductions of classic plays 
by actors and actresses, whose fame remains un- 
eclipsed by that of any of their successors. He 
listened in the churches on Sundays to fervid 
ecclesiastical rhetoric, and to the promulgation of 
new and transcendental religious doctrines, with 
the prescient eagerness of one who was himself in 
later years destined to shine as a pulpit orator. He 
attended occasional meetings of the then despised 
and abhorred abolitionists, with little thought of 
the part that he should be called upon by his larger 
Americanism to play in a later attempted emancipa- 
tion of the negro race from the bondage of credulity 
and ignorance. His career as a student in the Law 
School at Harvard was filled to overflowing with the 
awakening experiences of the place and times. 

"The abolitionists,'* he writes of them in that day, 
"were a noisy and fanatical faction, with more strength in 
Massachusetts than in any other part of the Union, but 
were despised there as half-crazy and fanatical. 

"Wendell Phillips, Tappan, Bowen, Garrison, and some 
women were the leaders," he continues. "I attended at 



HAEVARD AND N. E. INFLUENCES 69 

Concord an abolition meeting, — hired a buggy, and drove 
that distance to attend an anti-slavery meeting. It was 
held in a church, and very few were present. In 1844 the 
abohtion sentiment took form and organization under the 
name of the 'Liberty Party,' and I heard James G.Birney, 
the candidate of the party for the Presidency, deliver 
an address to not more than two hundred people in 
Faneuil Hall. Verily, times have changed since I was a 
student!" 

The year 1844 was one of violent and tremendous 
political excitement. The abolitionists meant to 
destroy slavery, though its destruction should mean 
the destruction of the Union. They were the first 
secessionists. ^^Mark!" wrote Garrison in the Lib- 
erator, ^^How stands Massachusetts at this hour in 
reference to the Union? Just where she ought to 
be — in an attitude of open hostility." 

''Let the Union be accursed," said the Liberator- 
"Look at the awful compromises of the Constitution by 
which that instrument is saturated with the blood of the 
slave!" 

"So much for entering into a covenant with death, and 
an agreement with hell!" pubhshed the Liberator, concern- 
ing the Federal Constitution, twelve years after Curry had 
departed from Harvard. "We confess that we intend to 
trample under foot the Constitution of this country," said 
Mr. Wendell Philhps at a later date; and Mr. Garrison de- 
manded, in 1855, "a Northern Confederacy, with no 
Union with slave-holders." 

Of Calhoun, whose devotion to the Union under 
the Constitution Curry had already come clearly to 
comprehend, and whose philosophical and logical 
interpretation of that instrument he never ceased, 
through a long life of service to his country, to ap- 



70 J. L. M. CURKY, A BIOGRAPHY 

prove, Von Hoist, a hostile and antagonistic biog- 
rapher has written: — 

The charge was wholly unfounded that he was endeavor- 
ing intentionally to incense the North and the South 
against each other, in order to promote the purpose of his 
party. He spoke the simple truth, when he asserted in his 
speech of March 9, 1836, that ''however caluminated and 
slandered," he had "ever been devotedly attached to the 
Union and the institution of the country," and that he was 
''anxious to perpetuate them to the latest generation." 
He acted under the firm conviction of an imperious duty 
towards the South and towards the Union, and his asser- 
tion was but too well founded that these petitions for the 
abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia were blows 
on the wedge, which would ultimately break the Union 
asunder. 

So it remains, in vindication of the truth of history, 
that however really the War between the States, from 
1861 to 1865, was waged by the North to preserve 
the Union, the men in the North who desired to 
abolish slavery at all hazards were the first internal 
foes of the Union; and the Southern men, who 
wished to preserve the Union, in accordance with 
their interpretation of the Federal Constitution, plac- 
ing local self government above the idea of Union, 
were none the less patriotic and well-based in their 
belief that they possessed the constitutional right 
to secede. 

The great political storm was everywhere gather- 
ing head. The annexation of Texas, over which 
shone like a star the heroic and splendid story of the 
Alamo; the great question of slavery, — an institu- 
tion which the civilized world had come at last to 
condemn; the tariff question, which had agitated 



HARVARD AND N. E. INFLUENCES 71 

the Nation and the States since the States had made 
the Nation; the Oregon boundary Une, a burning 
phase of the slavery question — these were the things 
that fevered the States, and that stirred Massachu- 
setts, and that stirred, too. Harvard College and its 
intellectual youth. 

Bliss it was in that dawn to be alive. 
But to be young was heaven. 

The Whigs nominated Clay and Frelinghuysen. 
The acclaim rang throughout the Union: — 

Hurrah, boys! The country's risin'! 
Henry Clay and Frelinghuysen! 

But the country did not rise that way. '^Polk, 
Dallas and Texas," was the antiphonal war-cry of 
the Democrats; and the Democrats won. But in 
the meantime, with persistent and unwavering and 
almost unnoted obstinacy, the abolitionists of the 
Liberator type, under the leadership of Birney, and 
Phillips and Garrison, were gathering strength and 
momentum. 

''Prior to the Whig nominations," writes Curry of the 
times, "I heard Sergeant S. Prentiss of Mississippi, one of 
the most eloquent men in America, make a speech to a 
packed audience in Faneuil Hall. It was one of the most 
thrilling specimens of platform oratory I ever listened to; 
and he carried his audience at pleasure. In the same hall I 
heard Vice-President Richard M. Johnson, a weak but 
honest old man, whose claim to popular support seemed to 
be based on a red-jacket, and the fact (of doubtful histori- 
cal authenticity), that he killed Tecumseh. Being fond of 
politics I used to attend many political meetings of all the 
parties. Among Democrats, I heard Senator Levi Wood- 
bury, afterwards a Judge of the Supreme Court; Charles 



72 J. L. M. CUREY, A BIOGRAPHY 

G. Greene, editor of the Boston Post; George Bancroft, the 
historian; Orestes A. Brownson, since quite famous as edi- 
tor of Brownson' s Review. ... I heard Daniel Web- 
ster several times. In appearance he was the most marked 
man I ever saw. In speaking, whether in Faneuil Hall or 
on Boston Common, before immense and enthusiastic as- 
semblages, he was unimpassioned and calm. It was more 
than suspected that he did not regard the nomination of 
Mr. Clay with favor. I heard also John M. Berrien of 
Georgia, Miller of New Jersey, and Morse of Maine. The 
leading managing democrat was B. F. Hallett. Benjamin 
F. Butler, so famous since as 'Beast Butler,' was an active 
democrat. Charles Sumner was then a literary lawyer, a 
favorite of Judge Story; but not actively connected with 
politics." 

In 1894, in a letter to Mr. Winthrop, he gave a 
further account of his recollections of Mr. Webster: — 

Washington, D. C, 1736 M Street, 

1 Jan., 1894. 

Dear Mr. Winthrop : — Yesterday your welcome letter 
of the 28th came, and I procured Scribner, which is not on 
our not too long list of periodicals, in order to read your ar- 
ticle on Webster. It is very interesting and instructive, 
and the reception you speak of is cumulative in enforce- 
ment of the suggestion so frequently pressed upon you, to 
call in a stenographer, and give autobiographical mem- 
oranda, in more connected form than is found in numerous 
pubhcations, for the delight of your wide circle of friends 
in Europe and America. A little article on your student 
life in Mr. Webster's office would be a valuable contribu- 
tion to a magazine. 

The reply to Hayne, for vigorous English, for felicity of 
illustration, for impassioned eloquence, is unsurpassed in 
American oratory. Of course I am not expected to concur 
in the general and unchangeable popular verdict in refer- 



HARVARD AND N. E. INFLUENCES 73 

ence to constitutional interpretation, or logical conclusive- 
ness. 

In 1844 I had the pleasure of hearing Mr. Webster 
twice, once in Faneuil Hall, when he addressed a meeting 
held to ratify Mr. Clay's nomination for the Presidency; 
and a second time, when he presided over an immense 
meeting, held on Boston Common. I was a mere boy, not 
unfamiliar with Prentiss, Hillard, Bowden, Yancey; but I 
could not help wondering at the great fame of Mr. W., as 
an orator. The closing sentences of the Scribner article, 
taken from your Central Park address, express my esti- 
mate of and admiration for the man; but, judging from the 
two occasions when I heard him, his was not the eloquence 
that moved assemblies. Slow of utterance, deliberate in 
manner, measuring his words, strong and almost faultless 
in diction, profound in his reasoning, his influence, it 
seemed to me, was from matter rather than manner, from 
weight of thought rather than capacity to arouse emotion. 
His presence was more majestic, more commanding, than 
that of any man I ever saw, and the epithet "godlike" 
was better adapted. It seemed to me, an inexperienced 
youth, when I stood near the platform on Boston Com- 
mon, that any child of ten years of age would not have hesi- 
tated instantaneously to select him from the thirty thou- 
sand as incomparably the greatest intellect. Mr. Everett 
I never saw nor heard. Mr. Choate I heard frequently; 
John Quincy Adams once, and Bancroft, Brownson, 
Woodbury several times. 

Among other orators of the period and vicinage 
to whom he listened in his student days at Harvard 
were Dr. Edward Amasa Park, then professor of 
sacred rhetoric in Andover Seminary, an '^ exponent 
of the doctrines that are embodied in the Andover 
Creed and called the New England system of theol- 
ogy"; George Stilbnan Hillard, lawyer, author and 



74 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

orator; Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd 
Garrison, the negro and the white abolitionist 
agitators; and Robert Rantoul, Jr., whose contem- 
porary fame throughout the country as an orator of 
unusual and powerful eloquence, as an able and per- 
sistent antagonist of protection and centralization 
in the Federal government, and as an advocate of 
educational reforms, has in the lapse of time, save 
in his own section, long since become only a memory 
and a name. 

It may be well imagined that Curry^s time was 
full. Law studies, politics, pulpit orators, great 
actors, and new and inspiring associations in many 
directions gave him much to think of and to do. 
Yet with it all, he found the leisure which an in- 
dustrious and busy man can always find for some 
other yet desirable work; and nearly every week he 
wrote for publication over the signature of '^lon,^' 
and sent to a paper in Tuscaloosa, letters on various 
subjects, but dealing largely with the subject of con- 
temporary politics, and the actors in the great 
political drama, whose earlier scenes were then begin- 
ning to be first presented upon the stage of history. 

Not the least among the broadening forces that 
were thus entering the young man's life, and shaping 
his character and career, was one which came finally 
to dominate his very being and to consecrate his 
highest energies. Horace Mann, and his work for 
education, enlisted at this time Curry's attention 
and interest, and thenceforward exercised upon him 
a strong and vital influence. 

It is illustrative of Curry's breadth of view, and 
tolerance of adverse opinion on the part of others, 
that although he was even then modelling hi'^ politi- 



HAEVARD AND N. E. INFLUENCES 75 

cal thought after that of Calhoun; and although 
Horace Mann was conspicuous among the anti-slav- 
ery agitators in politics, the young Harvard student 
did not permit the prejudice of partisanship to 
obscure his vision of Mann's great educational 
ideas. 

"Under a full sense of my responsibility — to my coun- 
try and my God," said Mann on the floor of Congress some 
years later, '*I deliberately say, better disunion — better a 
civil or a servile war, — better anything that God in his 
providence shall send, — than an extension of the bounds 
of slavery." 

War came; and Curry bore arms in defence of the 
principles upon which he conceived the Union to 
have been founded, involving among others the 
principle of local self-government on the part of 
the States with reference to African slavery. Near 
the close of a long life, and after a generation and 
more spent in the service of education in the South, 
he paid the tribute of his faith and admiration to the 
elder educator of the North: — 

When I was in Cambridge there occurred the cele- 
brated controversy, since historic, between Horace Mann 
and the thirty-one Boston teachers. Mann's glowing 
periods, earnest enthusiasm and democratic ideas fired 
my young mind and heart; and since that time I have 
been an enthusiastic and consistent advocate of universal 
education. 

The value of a great man lies in his power to 
raise up imitators and disciples. 

Henry Bernard in the East and Curry in the 
South almost share with Mann the honor of having 
led the movement for popular education and peda- 



76 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

gogic reform in this country in the nineteenth 
century. 

*'In 1847, after my return to Alabama, as a candidate for 
and a member of the Legislature, I spoke for free schools 
and voted for every proposition looking to the endowment 
of the State University. In 1853 and 1855 I was again a 
representative from Talladega County, and as a member 
of the Committee on Education sustained Judge Meek's 
bill, which became the first law on the statute book estab- 
lishing public schools." 

Meek^s name, which is better remembered among 
lawyers as that of an eminent and cultivated jurist, 
and in the literary world as the author of '^Red 
Eagle," an epic poem which embodies the romantic 
story of Weatherford, the Indian chief, is deserving 
of commemoration for his origination of the system 
of public education in Alabama in 1853, long before 
it had come in many other Southern States of the 
American Union. 

Among Curry's fellows in the Dane Law School 
has already been mentioned Rutherford B. Hayes, 
who succeeded to the Presidency of the United States 
in 1877 under circumstances that threatened repub- 
lican institutions in their consideration and solution. 
Of Mr. Hayes' relation and attitude towards the 
contest for the Presidency, and the famous Electoral 
Commission, he has himself made a record in his let- 
ter to Senator Sherman, dated Columbus, Ohio, 27 
November, 1876:— 

You feel, I am sure, as I do about this whole business. 
A fair election would have given us about forty electoral 
votes at the South, — at least that many. But we are not to 
allow our friends to defeat one outrage and fraud by an- 



HARVARD AND N. E. INFLUENCES 77 

other. There must be nothing crooked on our part. Let 
Mr. Tilden have the place by violence, intimidation, and 
fraud, rather than undertake to prevent it by means that 
will not bear the closest scrutiny. 

Curry, in the year of the Hayes-Tilden election, 
wrote of Mr. Hayes : — 

Hayes, three or four years my senior, boarded in the 
same home with myself, and we were quite intimate. He 
was a ''good fellow," studious and upright, but not spe- 
cially promising. To human appearance then my prospect 
for the Presidency was equal to his. 

The following rather naive entry in his diary, 
reminiscent of the days at Harvard, is characteris- 
tic of the man of later years, who always recognized 
the value of personal appearance and demeanor; and 
who exemplified in his own person the attractiveness 
of dress, and the polish of the best social life: 

I did not visit any ladies while I was at the Law School; 
but for a time I attended a dancing-school, and became 
quite fond of the amusement. 

The sacrifice of not visiting the ladies, which had 
finally given him such pleasure when at Athens, is 
easily attributable to the seriousness of his purpose 
at Harvard; and it may very well be imagined of him 
that even from attendance upon the dancing-school 
ambition was not altogether absent. 

He had matriculated in the Dane Law School, 
September 13, 1843. In February, 1845, he received 
his degree of Bachelor of Laws; and set his face 
homeward in the same month. He stopped at vari- 
ous places on his journey back to Alabama; and has 
recorded, in connection with these pauses by the way, 
an occasional interesting incident. 



78 J. L. M. CUERY, A BIOGRAPHY 

Dixon H. Lewis, who Curry says was 'Hhe heavi- 
est man he ever saw/' was then in Washington as a 
Senator from Alabama. He was a friend of William 
Curry's, and learning of young Curry's journey 
homeward, wrote him a letter inviting him to visit 
the national capitol. In response to this agreeable 
invitation, Curry spent a week in Washington on his 
way home, as the guest of Senator Lewis, and there- 
fore under most agreeable and advantageous aus- 
pices. 

"The annexation of Texas was under discussion in the 
Senate," he records of this visit, "and I heard a number of 
speeches. I remember to have heard Hannigan of In- 
diana, and Allen, the present (1876) Governor of Ohio. 
Mr. Lewis took me to see John C. Calhoun, who was then 
Secretary of State. A number of persons were in his room, 
among them 'Mike Walsh,' a 'subterranean' politician 
from New York, who would now be called a boss, a leader 
of the working men, who was afterwards elected to Con- 
gress. Mr. Calhoun was a brilliant talker, rapid, sugges- 
tive, profound. He was then in his sixty-second year. His 
burning eyes, prophetic face and lofty mien gave him the 
look of a chieftain around whom men would gladly rally. 
He received me very kindly, as he was very fond of the 
company of young men. He was giving a sketch of Mr. 
Van Buren, as an adroit politician, a manipulator of con- 
ventions, and unsound on the tariff question. This was 
my only interview with Mr. Calhoun, and I prize the recol- 
lection of it. In all my poHtical career I was an adherent 
of the Calhoun school of politics. I was very familiar with 
his writings, and I now regard him as no whit inferior to 
Aristotle, Burke, Bismarck, Cavour, Gladstone, or any 
statesman or publicist that ever lived." 

This is high praise of Calhoun coming from a man 
of Curry's breadth of view and large-mindedness, es- 



HARVAED AND N. E. INFLUENCES 79 

pecially in the light of events through which he sub- 
sequently passed that shattered most of Calhoun's 
political ideals. But it was a deliberate judgment 
and an interesting testimony to the commanding in- 
fluence exerted by Calhoun in this epoch of Ameri- 
can life. 

Among other noted men whom Curry met during 
his week's sojourn with Mr. Lewis in Congress, were 
George McDuffie of South Carolina, William Henry 
Haywood of North Carolina, and Thomas H. Benton 
of Missouri, all three of whom were then Senators 
from their respective States. He witnessed the in- 
auguration of James K. Polk, the democrat who had 
been elected in an exciting campaign over his Whig 
competitor, Henry Clay, and the induction into 
office of the vice-president, George M. Dallas. He 
disposes of Dallas with the remark, ^^He wore long 
silvery hair and was a graceful elocutionist." The 
new President, a native of North Carolina and a citi- 
zen of Tennessee, in his inaugural address arrested 
the young man's attention with his tribute to the 
Constitution and the Union. 

To perpetuate them, it is our sacred duty to preserve 
the Union. Who shall assign Hmits to the achievements of 
free minds and free hands under the protection of this 
glorious Union? No treason to mankind since the organiza- 
tion of society, would be equal in atrocity to that of him 
who would lift his hand to destroy it. He would over- 
throw the noblest structure of human wisdom which pro- 
tects himself and his fellow men. He would stop the prog- 
ress of free government and involve his country either in 
anarchy or in despotism. 

This was sound doctrine to this twenty-year-old 
boy over whom Calhoun's compelling presence and 



80. J. L. M. CUERY, A BIOGRAPHY 

great fame had cast their spell, and it found lodgment 
not alone in his mind, but went to his heart, and be- 
came a part of his life. 

Travelling home from Washington with Senator 
W. T. Colquitt and two of his daughters as compan- 
ions, the party went by rail to Covington, Georgia, 
and there took a stage. At Franklin, Alabama, 
Curry again took up his journey alone by rail to 
Montgomery, whence he travelled in a two-horse 
hack to Talladega. The young Alabamian reached 
home in an exalted state of mind, for he had travelled 
much and seen much of men and cities. He had 
touched hands with his political heroes at the na- 
tional capitol, and had heard presidents speak and 
hobnobbed with Senators and felt the impulse of the 
time at the very center of things. His year and one- 
half at Harvard and in New England had been, 
indeed, a vivid and crucial year, and doubtless had 
developed habits of mind and points of view which 
unconsciously moulded much of his after life. It is 
not far-fetched to fancy that from this tutelage came 
no little of his subsequent aptitude for interpretation, 
instinct for cosmopolitanism, contempt for intel- 
lectual violence and respect for the other man, even 
if he rejected the other man's opinion as he had 
rejected most of the current New England dogmas. 
Curry's nature was fiery and assertive, until suffer- 
ing tempered his spirit, but he managed, under the 
most adverse conditions, to escape the blight of 
provincialism and to hold a place as a citizen of the 
world. New England, itself, at this time, was 
boundlessly and aggressively provincial, but the 
experience of trying to understand other conditions 
and to do justice to other temperaments — something 



HARVARD AND N. E. INFLUENCES 81 

perhaps of the high-mindedness and detachment in 
the ^' quiet and still air" about the ancient seminary 
of learning, helped to free his mobile brain and ready 
sympathy from the shackles of crude thinking and 
rough obstinacy. It would have been helpful to 
the larger good if some of the young Sumners and 
Boutwells of the period in New England could have 
come South for a part of their education, and thus 
gained first-hand knowledge and perhaps intelligent 
sympathy with a people whose destinies they were 
to affect profoundly, but about whom they knew 
very little, and — most tragic of all ignorances — did 
not know that they did not know. 



CHAPTER V 

LAW AND LEGISLATION 

The years 1845 and 1846 were swift fateful years 
in the life of the virile young republic. It was just 
entering upon its first aggressive and foreign war. 
The empire of Texas was received without precedent 
directly into statehood without a preliminary and 
preparatory period in territorial status. Sinister 
motives were attributed in this annex to the friends 
of slavery; and the swift enactment of statutes, pass- 
ing of resolutions in Congress, and movement of 
armies in the field, showed how tense the matter 
was and how bound up with the supreme question 
of public policy vexing the allied states. Annexa- 
tion would unquestionably strengthen the slave 
power, but the spirit of expansion was abroad as it 
was in 1898 when the explosion of a powder magazine 
in a warship in Cuban waters set a nation irresistibly 
toward war. Men rejoiced in the ability of the 
United States to ^4ick all creation,^' and a certain 
youthful boasting and indulgence in superlatives 
ruled in common talk throughout the land. 

For young Curry, down in Alabama, the years 
were fallow, preparatory years, during which the 
gifted, well born, well educated young man was get- 
ting ready for participation in great affairs. Accord- 
ing to the custom of the day, he was reading law in 
the office of a local lawyer, Mr. Samuel W. Rice. 

82 



LAW AND LEGISLATION 83 

''At Talladega, I boarded," he writes, ''with Mr. 
Rice; and William W. Knox and I used to go home 
only six miles nearly every Saturday night. While 
reading law, I wrote editorials for the 'Watchtower/ 
visited the ladies, attended a debating society and 
made many friends and acquaintances in the coun- 
try." These were useful but innocuous occupations 
which could, by no chance, do him any harm, and 
which assure us that the much travelled collegian 
was not out of touch with other normal stay-at-home 
young men in that southwestern country. In 1846 
he tendered his services to the government as a 
soldier in the war with Mexico, but his attempt at 
soldiering proved abortive. 

With his eye on politics, he saw two questions, 
both settled affirmatively, as the principal issues 
of the state election; ''biennial sessions of the 
legislature and the removal of the capitol from 
Tuscaloosa." Hon. Frankhn W. Bowdon, after- 
wards a representative in Congress from the district, 
was a representative from Talladega County, and 
a leader in the legislature in carrying the two meas- 
ures. The capitol was removed to Montgomery, 
the city and county furnishing the building free of 
cost. 

Early in 1846 it became apparent that the adjustment 
of the boundary line between Texas and Mexico would 
lead to war. A fierce controversy arose between the Whig 
and Democratic parties as to the responsibility for the 
war. The act of Congress for raising troops said that war 
existed by act of Mexico. . . . The war was popular, 
and volunteers were numerous and enthusiastic. In May, 
1846, a company of infantry was raised in Talladega 
County. Jacob D. Shelley was captain. I was appointed 



84 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

second sergeant. Several meetings were held, and I made 
a number of speeches, in one of which I warned the people 
against the folly of believing that Mexico could be con- 
quered in a few months, as the Spaniards were proverbi- 
ally obstinate and resolute. 

We marched from Talladega to Wetumpka, where we 
embarked on a boat for Mobile. At various points recep- 
tions were given, and I had to make speeches. We went 
into camp at Mobile. After annoying delays, we were, 
with other companies, organized into a regiment, and 
mustered in for six months. Then the War Department 
refused to accept us for that period of service, and we were 
discharged. 

The bulk of the company re-enlisted for twelve months. 
It being uncertain when the troops would be ordered to 
the scene of war, five of us, Andrew W. Bowie, James 
Montgomery, William P. Bowden, Dr. C. G. Cunningham 
and myself, in a most foolhardy spirit, resolved to go to 
the army on our own charges. A small schooner, the 
Duane (a former revenue cutter, discharged for unsea- 
worthiness) was in the port of Mobile, loading with sup- 
plies. . . . We engaged passage and shipped for Point 
Isabel, against the advice and protest of friends. To us it 
seemed a dashing, gallant thing, and we enjoyed by antici- 
pation, the frolic. The second day out I became sick, and 
so continued for twelve days. My weight then was not 
more than one hundred and twelve pounds. Two days we 
were becalmed, and under a hot vertical sun we fished and 
read and played cards, and indulged in day dreams. Then 
came a terrific storm, the worst I ever saw, and our frail 
barque seemed every moment as if it would sink. The 
captain was skillful. When we reached the bar at Point 
Isabel, the vessel leaked rapidly, and the pumps were used 
incessantly. By means of a pilotboat, to get into which we 
ran a narrow risk of being drowned, we were, with our 
luggage, transported to shore. We bade a ready adieu to 
the Duane, which two days afterwards sank in the harbor. 



LAW AND LEGISLATION 85 

The day after landing we made our way to a regiment of 
Texas Rangers, Jack Hays, colonel; Ben McCuUoch, lieu- 
tenant-colonel; Chevallier, major; and attached ourselves 
to a company commanded by Captain Acklere. We were 
not formally mustered into service. 

On the fourth of July there was a celebration. Ashbel 
Smith, who had been minister from Texas to France, made 
a speech; and so did I. 

We remained in camp a week or more, when Dr. Cun- 
ningham became dangerously ill, and was ordered to be 
sent home. An attendant being required, as I was the 
least, the youngest, and very feeble, I was selected; and 
unwillingly I became the companion of the sick, hoping, 
however, to return to Mexico. 

It was a command, whose officers and men alike 
saw gallant and conspicuous service in the Mexican 
War; being genuine soldiers and fighting folks. Es- 
pecially picturesque was the figure of Ben McCul- 
loch, the lieutenant-colonel, who had just missed 
joining Crockett by the merest accident, when the 
latter had set out on the journey that closed with his 
life at the ill-fated Alamo; who had handled a gun 
under Sam Houston in the battle of San Jacinto; 
and who had served in the Congress of the young 
republic of Texas ; and had been shot in the arm in a 
duel with Reuben Davis of Mississippi. McCulloch 
rendered courageous service in the Mexican War, 
and after its close went with the 'Forty-Niners to 
California, where he illustrated for a while in his 
person as sheriff of Sacramento County the glowing 
verity of Bret Harte's later ''Tales of the Argonauts." 
He came back to the East in 1853, and was killed in 
battle as a brigadier-general in the service of the 
Confederacy. 



86 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

When Curry reached Talladega Dr. Cunningham 
was much improved; but the psychological moment 
for a return to the Mexican War did not recur, and he 
resumed his reading of law in Mr. Rice's office. 

"During the year," he says, ''after a long and severe 
examination by Hon. George W. Stone, a circuit judge, I 
was admitted to the bar, with all the privileges and duties 
of a lawyer." 

In 1847 he was busy with politics. During 1848 
and 1849 he practiced his profession with assiduity 
and apparent success; for in the latter year he was 
solicitor of Tallapoosa County and had, among 
others, one or two murder cases. But the routine of 
law-practice did not appeal to him; and, indeed, it is 
more than probable that he had intended its prac- 
tice from the beginning, as did so many of the young 
disciples of Coke in the South of the earlier half of the 
nineteenth century, as a mere means of entrance to 
the more alluring and larger field of politics. In 1850 
he abandoned the practice of law, and settled upon a 
plantation on Salt Creek in Talladega County, that 
had been given him by his father. 

''Although brought up on a farm," he says of himself at 
this time, "I knew little practically of agriculture; and 
while fond of the country, my tastes did not lie in the di- 
rection of making corn and cotton. My farming, being 
entrusted largely to negroes, was not profitable. I was 
economical and never went into debt. I preferred books 
to overseeing negroes." 

This little bit of self-analysis displays quite clearly 
Curry's real tendencies and ambitions. The drudg- 
ery and hard dry exactions of that jealous mistress 
the law certainly did not appeal to him. Tilling the 



LAW AND LEGISLATION 87 

soil was clearly obnoxious to his tastes. Even at 
that early date the real man stood revealed. The 
Strongest impulses of his nature were oratorical and 
didactic. He not only felt the capacity and the 
genius to move his fellows by speech, but he had a 
vehement longing to get up and conviiice everybody 
in sight to his way of thinking. As Walter Bagehot 
observed of Gladstone, he had a nature towards his 
audience. He was sure that if they only knew what 
he knew they would feel as he felt and believe as he 
believed If the cause were moral his enthusiasms 
increased tenfold, and to the oratorical and didactic 
impulses were added immediately the dramatic and 
contentious impulses. Politics attracted hiin in the 
mid-century period because the issues of the time 
were moral and deeply based on principles and en- 
thusiasms and deep loyalties. The pulpit attracted 
him in the sad days of reconstruction when character 
and integrity and spiritual steadfastness seemed the 
only stable things in a tumbled-down world; and the 
platform attracted him later on when the sun broke 
through the clouds of the dreary time and he caught 
the hopeful vision of a land made over in the strength 
of a new generation trained to new duties and new 

occasions. 

In the meantime, in July, 1847, he became a can- 
didate for the office of representative in the Alabama 
Legislature. He was now well launched upon a po- 
Utical career, which was congenial to his tastes and 
not antagonistic to his studies and his habits of 
mind, and in which he was destined to become dis- 
tinguished. In the spring of this year he had served 
as secretary of the State Democratic Convention at 
Montgomery, which nominated Reuben Chapman 



88 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

for governor. His services had already come to be in 
great demand as a public speaker and the eyes of the 
democratic leaders of the State were fixed upon him. 
In regard to his skill and success as a speaker, he 
modestly writes of himself at this time : 

My small size and youthful appearance and the popu- 
larity of my father gave me advantages over my competi- 
tors. We had appointments at various places, and made 
public speeches. I had some fluency and success as a 
speaker. 

The burning political question of the day was that 
of slavery in the Territories; and especially with re- 
gard to the Wilmot proviso, a measure that had been 
introduced into the United States House of Repre- 
sentatives by Mr. Wilmot of Pennsylvania, on be- 
half of many northern Democrats, applying to the 
territory proposed to be acquired from Mexico in the 
settlement of the war by negotiation, the provision 
of the Ordinance of 1787, which later came to be 
the language of the Thirteenth Amendment, that 
^'neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall 
ever exist in any part of said territory except for 
crime, whereof the party shall first be duly con- 
victed." The Whigs and the northern Democrats 
united in favor of the Wilmot proviso in the Na- 
tional House of Representatives, and it had passed 
the House in the preceding year, but went to the 
Senate too late to be acted upon. 

The introduction and discussion of the Wilmot 
proviso aroused a crisis of passions upon the slav- 
ery question; and the spectre, which the prophetic 
imagination of Mr. Jefferson had long before con- 
jured up, upon the passage of the Missouri Compro- 



LAW AND LEGISLATION 89 

mise Act, of a division of the country upon sectional 
lines, — a vision that ^'alarmed him like a firebell in 
the night, ^' — now presented itself, not as the unsub- 
stantial pageant of a dream, but as a terrible reality. 
Upon this imminent question Curry took no un- 
certain stand. A letter written by him in that year, 
on the threshold of his political career, attests from its 
age-yellowed pages the sincerity of his convictions, 
and the lofty courage of his purpose : — 

Mr. James H. Joiner, 

Dear Sir: — A report, prejudicial to my success, has been 
in circulation in the lower end of the county, that I am 
in favor of a property qualification for voters. It is 
false. 

My position in reference to General Taylor is misunder- 
stood. The perilous exigency of the times demands a 
president who will resist all interference by the general 
government with our domestic institutions. This dis- 
crimination, recognized and adopted in the Wilmot Pro- 
viso, is degrading to the South, and all freemen must feel 
that "death is preferable to acknowledged inferiority.'' 
To resist the effort which will be made to prohibit slavery 
in the territory to be acquired from Mexico (as just in- 
demnity for the expenses of this war, the spoliations of our 
commerce, and injuries done to our citizens, which would 
have justified a declaration of war many years ago), it 
becomes our duty to take "firm, united and concerted 
action." 

The South can never support any man for President 
who is not sound on this paramount and controlling ques- 
tion. Their support of any man would be idle, except as 
necessary to his success. Then some man must be selected 
who has popularity, — upon whom all parties at the South 
can unite. General Taylor, I think, is that man. The 
West is not quite thoroughly corrupted on the slavery 



90 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

question; and enough of them might go with us to secure 
his election. 

General Taylor, I have no doubt, is a freetrade man. 
If he runs as a rabid, partisan Whig, determined to ad- 
vance Whig measures, without testing the measures, the 
success of which under Mr. Polk's administration has made 
his name illustrious and immortal, I would hesitate long. 
The real issue should be decisively and determinately 
made up, before I could give him my humble support. 

I am not wedded to General Taylor. President Polk, 
Calhoun, Stevenson, Butler, Walker, Lewis, could get my 
support as soon or more so, if there were a reasonable 
probability of success. The South should take her posi- 
tion. The question has to be met. It ought not to 
be shuffled off or evaded longer. To unite on any one 
man would be an evidence of our concert, our union, our 
strength. The emergency requires it. The Constitution 
requires it. Truth, justice, patriotism, and our interest 
require of us something more than empty bravado. Ac- 
tion, action, action is not more necessary in oratory than 
in times of danger. 

Yours respectfully, 
July 19th, 1847. J. L. M. Curry. 

This was a remarkable letter to have been written 
by a youth of twenty-two, who had scarcely finished 
his law studies. With the understanding of the 
patriot, no less than with the keen discernment of 
the politician, he recognized the political dangers 
that confronted the country, and the possible solu- 
tion of those dangers in the election of some safe, 
conservative man as President. The North and the 
South were facing each other with hostile and defiant 
fronts on the great issue, which according to the 
theory of the former involved the cause of humanity 
itself, and according to that of the latter carried 



LAW AND LEGISLATION 91 

with it a continuance, or a destruction, as the re- 
sult might prove, of the civihzation and social 
existence of the South. Over against the fiery 
denunciations of slavery by Garrison and Wen- 
dell Phillips and Owen Lovejoy and Frothingham, 
Calhoun set the logic of his conclusions in the 
expression : — 

To destroy the existing relations would be to destroy 
this prosperity (of the Southern States), and to place the 
two races in a state of conflict which must end in the ex- 
pulsion or extirpation of one or the other. No other can be 
substituted compatible with their peace or security. The 
difficulty is in the diversity of the races. So strongly 
drawn is the line between the two in consequence, and so 
strengthened by the force of habit and education that it 
is impossible for them to exist together in the community 
where their numbers are so nearly equal as in the slave- 
holding States, under any other relation than that which 
now exists. Social and political equality between them is 
impossible. No power on earth can overcome the difficulty. 
The causes he too deep in the principles of our nature to 
be surmounted. But, without such equality, to change the 
present condition of the African race, were it possible, 
would be but to change the form of slavery. 

This is a lucid, powerful statement and read in 
the light of the present, after fifty years of freedom 
and education and social experimentation, makes it 
very clear how honest and sincere were the men of 
the Calhoun type throughout the country, and how 
well grounded their fears. Men who felt in this way 
stood on higher ground than greed or inhumanity. 
Surely no mere oligarchy of wealth could feel and 
speak after this fashion. 

Curry, with the recognition that soldiers are rarely 



92 J. L. M. CUREY, A BIOGRAPHY 

politicians, and even more rarely partisans, saw in 
General Taylor, Whig though he acclaimed himself, 
a figure before which the stormy passions of the polit- 
ical period might subside; and in this patriotic con- 
templation of the situation many other older and 
wiser men of his day shared. Yet with all his eager- 
ness to save the country from its impending peril, 
he fearlessly proclaimed his principles of devotion 
to the Federal Constitution, as construed by the 
school of democracy to which he professed allegiance. 
On the first Monday in August, 1847, the legis- 
lative election was held; and among all the can- 
didates for the Alabama House of Representatives in 
his county, Curry received the highest number of 
votes. The legislative sessions had been made 
biennial; and in the first biennial session which 
assembled in the new capitol of the State, at Mont- 
gomery, later destined to witness the birth, and for 
a brief time to be the home, of the ill-fated Con- 
federacy, he took the oath of office as a legislator. 
The session was distinguished among other things of 
a different character by the election of a United 
States Senator. The body was overwhelmingly 
democratic; and the strict-construction candidate 
was Curry's friend and recent host. Senator Dixon M. 
Lewis, whom he had named in his letter to Joiner, 
as worthy of the Presidential nomination, along with 
General Taylor, the conquering hero of the Mexican 
War; President Polk, under whose administration 
that war had been successfully waged; the great 
triumvir, John C. Calhoun; Andrew Stevenson of 
Virginia; General William Orlando Butler of Ken- 
tucky, who for his gallantry at Monterey had re- 
ceived two swords of honor, and Leroy Pope Walker, 



LAW AND LEGISLATION 93 

speaker of the Alabama House of Representatives, 
and later Confederate Secretary of War. 

Lewis belonged to the Calhoun school of democ- 
racy. He was a strict constructionist, and an ultra 
State rights democrat. William R. King, his demo- 
cratic competitor, who had served the State as 
senator, and who had the year before returned from 
Paris, whither he had gone as minister to France in 
1844, by appointment of President Tyler, was a 
follower of Van Buren; and went down in defeat 
before the Nullifier and Secessionist, Lewis. 

Lewis was a man of great stature, and weighed 
considerably more than four hundred pounds. It 
is said that furniture had to be constructed for his 
especial use, and that he always engaged two seats 
in a stage coach or railway car. He was a man of 
fine ability and noble feelings; and the story is told 
of him that upon the occasion of the shipwreck of 
a steamer on which he was a passenger, he refused 
to enter the boat that was let down to take off the 
other passengers, until they were all safely landed, 
for fear of imperilling their safety; and was in im- 
minent danger in the meantime until his final rescue. 

"Upon reaching Montgomery," writes Curry of his 
new experience in the legislature, "I went to the 'Hall,' 
the leading hotel. The large reception-room was crowded. 
Mr. King was in one part, surrounded by his friends; Mr. 
Lewis in another, alike surrounded. My preference for 
Mr. Lewis being known, I was led to him, and he seated 
me upon his knee. I was apparently a boy, beardless and 
slender; Mr. Lewis was the largest man I ever saw. Mr. 
W. L. Yancey, afterwards so famous, was present, and an 
ardent supporter of Mr. Lewis, who at the election by the 
Legislature, was chosen on the eighteenth ballot." 



94 J. L. M. CUREY, A BIOGRAPHY 

William Lowndes Yancey, whom Curry mentions 
in the foregoing paragraph, was at that time a mem- 
ber of Congress. It was in this year of 1846 that, 
as has been said of him, ''his mission began." He 
had been an antagonist of Nullification in South 
Carohna, where he edited a newspaper that attacked 
Calhoun and Hayne. Later he moved to Alabama, 
and formulated that expression of political faith 
among Southern democrats, that came to be known 
as ''the Alabama platform"; and which in 1860, in 
the Democratic Convention at Charleston, under 
the influence of his flaming eloquence, was made the 
Southern program, and caused the division of the 
democracy of the Union. Possessed of an unsur- 
passed and compelling gift of oratory, he was a 
man of great personal modesty and self-effacement; 
and he was as much beloved by his friends and 
political followers as he was feared and hated by 
his political antagonists. The fame of Yancey^s 
wonderful eloquence, continuing long since the de- 
parture of his generation, is still cherished by the 
descendants of the men who heard it, both gentle 
and simple, in the Southern States; where 

They'll speak of him for years to come 

In cottage-chronicle and tale. 
When for aught else renown is dumb, 

His legend shall prevail. 

Upon its organization, the Alabama House of 
Representatives elected Leroy Pope Walker its 
speaker. In appointing his committees, Mr. Walker 
gave Curry an immediate, though not undeserved 
prominence, by making him chairman of the ex- 
tremely important committee on Privileges and 



LAW AND LEGISLATION 95 

Elections; and he also gave him a position on the 
Judiciary Committee. 

The only bill of serious importance introduced by 
Curry during the session was one ^^to reform the 
evils of local legislation by transferring to county 
and to court jurisdiction many matters which had 
burdened the legislature. '^ It was a bill in favor of 
Curry^s favorite democratic doctrine of the right of 
local self-government, — a doctrine that Mr. Burke 
has accurately and strikingly described: — 

To be attached to the subdivision, to love the little pla- 
toon we belong to in society, is the first principle, — the 
germ, as it were, — of public affections. It is the first link 
in the series by which we proceed towards a love to our 
country, and to mankind. 

To its author's satisfaction the bill became a law. 

Bills to fund the University debt and for the in- 
crease of taxes were the subject of frequent and 
animated discussion in the legislature. Curry sup- 
ported both; and he spoke in favor of free public 
schools, and voted for every proposition looking 
toward the endowment of the State University. 

*'I always voted for measures in favor of educa- 
tion, '^ he records of this period of his earliest legis- 
lative experience. 

During this session of the legislature, the body 
gave a reception to Generals John A. Quitman and 
James Shields, both of whom had distinguished 
themselves in the War with Mexico; and who, like 
other heroes of that recent struggle, were in high 
public favor, wherever they went. 

During this session, too, Asa Whitney, the origi- 
nator of the scheme of a transcontinental railroad, 



96 J. L. M. CUERY, A BIOGRAPHY 

and through whose efforts appropriations were 
first secured in 1853 for the first surveys covering 
the northern, southern, and central routes, deUvered 
an address before the legislature in advocacy of his 
scheme, and sought its endorsation by resolution. 
Curry, in recalling this speech in 1876, did not re- 
member that Mr. Whitney's efforts in endeavoring 
to obtain resolutions in behalf of his Pacific railroad 
were successful. 

Another legislative visitor of the period was Miss 
Dorothea Dix, whose name is famous in America for 
her efforts in behalf of State legislation for the estab- 
lishment of insane hospitals and asylums through- 
out the country. In her beneficent work for the 
amelioration of the condition of prisoners, paupers 
and lunatics, she is said to have appeared before the 
respective legislatures of every state east of the Rocky 
Mountains, and to have been largely instrumental 
in procuring legislative action in a number of these 
states for the establishment of state hospitals for the 
insane. This was her mission in visiting Montgom- 
ery : but it does not appear that she was on this oc- 
casion successful. 

In 1848 occurred the Presidential election and 
the birth at Buffalo, New York, on August 9th 
of a new political party, the Free Soilers, which 
adopted a platform containing the declaration that 
Congress had no more power to make a slave 
than to make a king. This platform further de- 
clared that there should be no more slave states 
and no more slave territories; and nominated Mar- 
tin Van Buren for President and Charles Francis 
Adams for Vice-president. The Democracy earlier in 
the year had in their convention at Baltimore nomi- 



LAW AND LEGISLATION 97 

nated Lewis Cass of Michigan and William Orlando 
Butler of Kentucky for President and Vice-presi- 
dent, and had renewed the strict-construction plat- 
forms of 1840 and 1844; — but with a significance as 
ominous as that with which Mr. Jefferson had 
viewed the adoption of the Missouri Compromise. 
It had voted down by an overwhelming majority a 
resolution that Congress had no power to interfere 
with slavery, either in the territories or the states. 
The Whig Convention, following that of the Democ- 
racy, had wisely recognized the influence of war 
upon the popular mand; and had done what Curry 
in his letter to Joiner had intimated a desire to see 
the Democrats do. It had met at Philadelphia in 
June, and nominated General Zachary Taylor for 
President, and Millard Fillmore of New York for 
Vice-president, without a platform or other declara- 
tion of party principles. Taylor was a slave-holder; 
and many Democrats in the South, '^ preferred a 
slave-holding candidate without a platform to a non- 
slave-holding candidate, on a platform in which sup- 
port of slavery had been voted down." Taylor and 
Fillmore were elected by a majority of both free and 
slave states. The Northern Dem^ocrats believed that 
the Southern democracy had betrayed the Cass 
ticket : and when Congress met in December, nearly 
all of the Free State Democrats voted in the House 
for a bill to organize the territories of California and 
New Mexico, with the Wilmot Proviso attached. 

The belief entertained by the Northern democracy 
that the Southern Democrats had not been loyal to 
Cass was certainly not true in Curry's case. 
Though, with a wisdom beyond his years and experi- 
ence, he had put General Taylor forward as his fore- 



98 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

most candidate, after his party had made its plat- 
form and its nominations he zealously supported 
both. 

^^I made a number of speeches in favor of General 
Cass," he writes in his record; ^^but the military 
fame of General Taylor gave him an early success." 

Prior to his election to the legislature in August, 
1847, an event had occiu-red in Curry's life of para- 
mount importance above politics or any experience 
of office-holding or political campaigning. On the 
4th of March, 1847, he married Ann Alexander 
Bowie, whose father. Judge Alexander Bowie, was 
born in Abbeville district. South Carolina, and died 
December 30, 1866, in Talladega. He was a gradu- 
ate of the South Carolina College, a member of the 
legislature of that state, and at the Nullification Con- 
vention, a popular lawyer, and a very eloquent 
speaker. He moved to Talladega County, Alabama, 
in 1836; and was a trustee of the State University 
and chancellor of the Northern Division of the State. 
His son-in-law has left of him the memorial that ^'he 
was a fine conversationist, a graceful writer, and a 
scholarly, Christian gentleman." Mrs. Curry's 
mother was Susan Jack, a member of a prominent 
South Carolina family; and Mrs. Curry herself was 
born near Abbeville, prior to the father's removal to 
Talladega. 

The issue of this marriage was four children, 
Susan Lamar, William Alexander, Manly Bowie, 
and Jackson Thomas. Of these, only two arrived at 
adult age. William Alexander Curry was born in 
1854 and died in the following year; and Jackson 
Thomas Curry, who was born in 1860, also died in 
the year succeeding his birth. The oldest child, 



LAW AND LEGISLATION 99 

Susan Lamar Curry, who was born September 2, 
1850, married November 13, 1873, Reverend John 
B. Turpin, and died January 7, 1881. The son who 
grew to manhood was Manly Bowie Curry, who was 
born April 23, 1857. He was educated at the Uni- 
versity of Virginia, and was a captain in the United 
States Army in the Philippines, after the Spanish- 
American War. He was killed in an automobile acci- 
dent at Atlanta, Georgia, December 18, 1907. At 
the time of his death he was a major in the United 
States Army, and Paymaster of the Department of 
the Gulf. He left a widow and three small children 
to survive him. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE BONE OF CONTENTION 

Curry writes in his record, long after the stormy 
passions engendered by the pohtics of the slavery 
period had passed away: — 

1850 was a year of much political excitement. Ques- 
tions growing out of the acquisition of territory from 
Mexico deeply agitated the Southern mind. In Congress 
what was called the ''Wilmot Proviso," prohibiting the 
introduction of African slavery into the territories lately 
acquired by expenditure of common blood and treasure, 
had divided political parties, and exasperated the North 
and the South. Since the close of the Mexican War, 
slavery as affecting the territories was the ''bone of con- 
tention." A large party at the North demanded that the 
territories should be kept free from the "curse." The 
South felt that to exclude their peculiar property from 
common territory was a flagrant injustice, an insulting 
discrimination, and a violation of the Constitution. The 
two sections began to grow apart, and to feel alienation 
and animosity. Bills were numerous, during these years, 
in Congress, to adjust the dispute. Debates were able. 
Calhoun and Webster were then living; and they repre- 
sented the two sides of the question. 

David Wilmot, a democratic member of Congress 
from Pennsylvania, had introduced his famous ''Pro- 
viso" in 1846. It consisted, as has been heretofore 
partially stated, of an amendment to the pending bill 

100 



THE BONE OF CONTENTION 101 

for appropriating two millions of dollars for the pur- 
chase of a part of Mexico, and the amendment pro- 
vided that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude 
except for crime should ever exist in said territory. 
The amendment passed the House of Representa- 
tives and failed of passage in the Senate; but it gave 
rise to the ''Free-Soil" movement, and split the 
Northern and Southern democracy like a wedge. 
The Wilmot Proviso and the Missouri Compromise 
constitute the two crucial measures in the history of 
slavery legislation. Mr. Jefferson, in a sort of de- 
spair, called the Compromise ''the Knell of the 
Union." To the Northern men of the 'forties the 
Proviso seemed the tocsin of the armed conflict nec- 
essary to preserve its life. 

''The coincidence of a marked principle, moral and 
political, with a geographical line," said Jefferson, with 
pregnant prescience, of the Missouri Compromise, '^once 
conceived, I feared would never more be obliterated from 
the mind; that it would be recurring on every occasion, 
and renewing irritations, until it would kindle such mutual 
and mortal hatred as to render separation preferable to 
eternal discord." 

The object of the Missouri Compromise Act of 
1820, as that of the Wilmot Proviso, was to delimit 
the extension of slavery: the former prohibiting slav- 
ery thenceforward north of the line of 36° 30'; and 
the latter, as stated, prohibiting it in the newly ac- 
quired Mexican territory. In 1846, the time of the 
Proviso, the great issue had come to be too exciting 
to admit of the picturesque and vituperative phrase- 
ology which men like John Randolph had bestowed 
upon the earlier measure. 



102 J. L. M. CUERY, A BIOGRAPHY 

The forces of North and South were beginning to 
align themselves for the titanic struggle which was 
to follow in less than two decades. 

"In 1849-50 certain laws were passed, called 'Com- 
promise Measures,'" continues Curry. ''The spirit and 
general tenor of this legislation, it was thought by many 
persons, especially in South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama 
and Mississippi, were very hostile to the rights and 
equality of the South in the Union. In this year, 1850, 
and in 1851, an attempt was made to organize a party 
favorable to secession. I favored it, but the movement 
was unwise, premature and unpopular." 

The Compromise Measures of 1850 were a series of 
acts dealing, for the most part, with the slavery 
question and the rights of the Northern and Southern 
States under the Constitution. Henry A. Wise of 
Virginia spoke of these measures as ''an awful paci- 
fication"; but the stringent Fugitive Slave Law, 
written into the Compromise Acts by James Murray 
Mason of Virginia, served to make them the instru- 
ment of delaying the "irrepressible conflict" for an- 
other decade. In the meantime, the "attempt to 
organize a party favorable to secession" took place 
in the calling of a convention of Southern States to 
meet in June, 1850, at Nashville, Tennessee. 

"The great object of a Southern Convention," wrote 
Mr. Calhoun on July 9, 1849, to Mr. CoUin S. Tarpley 
of Mississippi, "should be to put forth in a solemn man- 
ner the causes of our grievances in an address to the 
other states, and to admonish them, in a solemn manner, 
as to the consequences which must follow, if they should 
not be redressed, and to take measures preparatory to 
it, in case they should not be. The call should be ad- 
dressed to all those who are desirous to save the Union 



\\ 



THE BONE OF CONTENTION 103 

and our institutions, and who, in the alternative, should 
it be forced on us, would prefer the latter." 

The Southern Convention met at Nashville in 
June, 1850. Five Southern States were represented. 
A preamble and resolutions were adopted, which set 
forth with great vividness and effect the grounds of 
difference between the people of the South and those 
of the North in relation to the construction of the 
Federal Constitution and Slavery. In the preamble 
occurred these words: ^'We make no aggressive 
move. We stand upon the defensive. We invoke 
the spirit of the Constitution, and claim its guaran- 
tees. Our rights, our independence, the peace and 
existence of our families, depend upon the issue." 
Among the resolutions was one expressing ^'cordial 
attachment to the Constitutional Union of the 
States," but another declaring that Union to be one 
of ^^ equal and independent sovereignties," possess- 
ing the right to resume the powers delegated to the 
Federal Government, whenever they deemed it 
'^proper and necessary." There was also a resolu- 
tion recommending to the Southern States that they 
meet in a Congress for the purpose of securing the 
restoration of their Constitutional rights, if possible, 
or else of providing for 'Hheir future safety and inde- 
pendence." 

Pending the Compromise Measures in Congress, 
the Nashville Southern Convention adjourned to 
reconvene in the following November. Upon its re- 
assembly in Nashville, its numbers were larger, and 
seven states were now found to be represented. But 
in the meantime the compromise bills had become 
laws: and the Southern Convention adjourned, after 
the adoption of a series of resolutions, that were as 



104 J. L. M. CUERY, A BIOGRAPHY 

extraordinary in their detail of the principles animat- 
ing the men who made them, as they were futile. 

''In the public meetings in Talladega County," con- 
tinues Curry in his narrative of the political events of 
the period, '*I took an active part, and made several 
speeches. 

"Mr. Calhoun died this year, and at a public meeting 
at the Court House to take proper notice of the great 
loss, I was on the Committee on Resolutions, and made 
an address." 

During the years of 1851 and 1852 Curry lived 
quietly on his farm, making an occasional speech at 
a farmers' meeting, or a Fourth of July oration at a 
country barbecue. Of an address of the latter kind 
he takes occasion to record that it ''was thoroughly 
prepared and memorized, without my writing a 
word." Jackson Curry about this time bought a 
plantation in Marengo County, and moved thither; 
whereupon Jabez bought his brother Jackson's farm, 
which lay only three miles distant from Talladega, 
and more convenient to his law-office than his own. 
Settling on this place, he resumed the active practice 
of the law in Talladega, living there until 1865, when 
he moved to Marion. 

"During these years," he writes, "there was scarcely a 
night that there were not one or more persons at my 
house — preachers, relatives, and friends were always 
welcome." 

Of this overflowing and unassuming hospitality, 
characteristic of the people and country, he makes 
further mention: — 

In the absence of a sufficient supply of preachers, 
Methodists, Baptists and Presbyterians held "camp- 



THE BONE OF CONTENTION 105 

meetings." An arbor was built, surrounded by tents 
rudely constructed of planks. The tent-holders furnished 
food and lodging, gratuitously and bounteously to all 
visitors. At the stand or arbor, preaching and other 
religious services were held during the day and at night. 
Immense congregations attended. The Baptists held a 
camp-meeting at Cold Water, a large clear stream of 
limestone water, on the boundary between Talladega and 
Calhoun Counties. My father had the largest tent on 
the ground, and entertained a large number of persons. 
I attended these meetings every year, and enjoyed them. 
Distinguished preachers were usually present. While 
liable to degenerate into physical excitement, the meet- 
ings on the whole were productive of good. 

In 1852, Curry acted as agent for the Alabama 
and Tennessee River Railroad Company; and in 
this capacity traversed the counties of Talladega, Cal- 
houn and Randolph, making speeches, and obtaining 
rights of way and subscriptions for the road, which 
was being built from Selma to Rome, via Monticello, 
Talladega and Jacksonville. 

In 1853, he was again a candidate for the State 
legislature from Talladega County, and was again 
elected at the head of the poll. The speaker of the 
House, the Honorable William Garrett, appointed 
him to the chairmanship of the committee on In- 
ternal Improvements. He was also made a member 
of the committee on Education, and chairman of 
the House division of a joint committee to examine 
the accounts of the commissioner and trustee who 
had been previously designated to ^^wind up" the 
State bank and its branches. 

A school law, heretofore referred to in an earlier 
chapter, introduced and championed by Judge Meek, 



106 J. L. M. CUERY, A BIOGRAPHY 

that was designed to institute and organize a system 
of public schools for the State, was enacted. Of its 
distinguished author, Curry has left the following 
memorial, written in 1895 : — 

Alexander B. Meek, then of Mobile, a brilliant speaker, 
of large culture, rich, poetic fancy, progressiveness of aim 
and thought, had the patriotic purpose to develop the 
minds of Alabama youth. In due time, from his com- 
mittee on Education, he submitted an able report, ac- 
companied by an elaborate bill, providing for the estab- 
lishment and maintenance of a system of public schools. 
After an interesting debate, the bill became a law, and 
William F. Perry of Talladega was elected Superinten- 
dent. 

But by far the most interesting and exciting ques- 
tion before the legislature was that of ^' State aid.'^ 
Of this Curry writes: — 

Mj'- committee reported bills, granting endorsement of 
railroad bonds, on certain well-defined conditions; and 
the Governor, John A. Winston, vetoed them. In the 
controversy, I defended the bills and the principle of 
well-guarded assistance to internal improvements. 

Winston's opposition to State aid for railroads 
and the reissue of State banknotes as a loan to rail- 
road companies won for him the soubriquet of ^Hhe 
Veto Governor." Curry's influence in the legis- 
lature, or other undisclosed causes, served to pass 
the State aid bills over the Governor's vetoes; but 
the latter triumphed in the end. The attorney- 
general of the State stood by the executive in the 
struggle, and gave an opinion that the acts were 
unconstitutional; and the treasurer of the State was 
instructed to make no disbursements under them. 



THE BONE OF CONTENTION 107 

Winston's attitude was vindicated by his re-election 
as governor in 1855, and the approbration of his 
course with reference to ^^ State aid" by the legis- 
lature of that year. 

For some years the question of a geological survey 
of Alabama had been agitated, and the relation of 
geology to agriculture had been discussed. The 
monumental work of William Barton Rogers, who 
had organized a survey of Virginia, and of his hardly 
less distinguished brother, Henry D. Rogers, who 
had made similar surveys of New Jersey and of 
Pennsylvania, had for the past two decades attracted 
attention to the historical geology of the great 
Appalachian chain; and farseeing men in Alabama 
beheld with the eyes of prophecy the future that 
State was destined to have when a full knowledge of 
her subterranean possessions should be unfolded and 
disclosed. In 1850, the committee on Education in 
the State Senate had submitted a bill for a geological 
survey; but no action was taken upon it. During 
the session of 1853-54, Curry offered a similar bill in 
the house, and it was referred to his committee on 
Internal Improvements. He reported it to the house 
from, the committee, with a written argument in its 
behalf that was published separately. After con- 
siderable opposition the bill became a law. It 
authorized, among other things, the appointment by 
the Governor, of a State geologist at a salary of $2,500, 
whose duty it should be to make a thorough survey, 
^^so as to determine accurately the quality and char- 
acteristics of the soil and adaptation to agricultural 
purposes; the mineral resources, their location, and 
the best means for their development; the water 
power and capacities, and generally everything re- 



108 J. L. M. CUREY, A BIOGRAPHY 

lating to the geological and agricultural character of 
the State/' It was the modest beginning of a tre- 
mendous movement, and contained in it the germ 
which fructified and bore abundant harvest later in 
the mines of Alabama, and the furnace fires of 
Birmingham and her sister cities of a later industrial 
epoch. 

The year 1854 seems by the record to have been 
a quiet and uneventful one in Curry's personal his- 
tory. In 1876 he wrote concerning it: '^I can now 
recall nothing of special interest. My farm and pro- 
fession occupied my time." 

In May, 1855, William Curry, his father died; and 
in his death his son suffered a great loss. Mr. Curry 
was a man of no inconsiderable wealth, and large 
popularity. He was liberal and hospitable to a 
fault; and he was a conscientious and devoted 
Christian. At the time of his death he was a director 
of the Alabama and Tennessee River Railway Com- 
pany; and, in filial affection, his son Jabez preserved 
among his papers to the day of his death, a copy of 
the resolutions of respect passed by WilUam Curry's 
colleagues on the board of directors, May 24, 1855. 

In proportion as the preceding year had seemed 
to him dull and uneventful, Curry found that of 
1855 crowded to the brim with action and excite- 
ment. Writing of the time more than a generation 
later, he says: — 

The years 1854-1855 will be long remembered for the 
origin, unparalleled growth and complete overthrow of 
the American or Know-Nothing Party. It was a secret 
political organization, with degrees or orders of member- 
ship, and a ritual of initiation. Strong oaths were ad- 
ministered to persons admitted. The party suddenly 



THE BONE OF CONTENTION 109 

became very popular. Lodges were organized, in nearly 
every neighborhood, village, town and city in the 
United States. So strong was the organization, it be- 
came presumptuous and intolerant of opposition. The 
leading object was to cultivate an intense Americanism, 
and exclude aliens from suffrage, and Roman Catholics 
from office. Nearly all the Whigs and many Democrats 
were beguiled into the party, which encountered its first 
and most serious opposition in Virginia, where Henry 
A. Wise, the democratic candidate for governor, made 
one of the most brilliant and effective campaigns ever 
made in the United States. In many other States the 
excitement was high; in none, more than in Alabama. 
In spite of many friendly warnings as to my self-inflicted 
political immolation, I was, from the beginning to the 
end, inflexibly opposed to the secret party and its prin- 
ciples. The death of my father and the settlement of 
his estate made it proper for me to decHne candidacy 
for any office; but on July 3, 1855, I was by a county 
convention unanimously nominated for the legislative 
house of representatives. ' The convention was preceded 
by a large and tumultuous and sanguine assemblage of 
the opposition; and the leading speaker, in anticipation 
of my nomination, congratulated his party on the glory 
it would have in defeating "the Ajax Telamon of the 
Democracy." Having apparently no option, I accepted 
the nomination; and from that day until the election 
on the first Monday in August I traveled and spoke 
every day, except Sundays. The Know-Nothings never 
doubted of success; and I had to meet in debate' Lewis 
E. Parsons, a knightly antagonist, one of the ablest law- 
yers in the State, a thorough gentleman, afterwards gov- 
ernor by presidential appointment, and Hon. Thomas B. 
Woodward, who had been a member of the Nullification 
Convention in South Carolina, and was the brother of 
Joseph A. Woodward, a leading member of Congress 
from South Carofina, and who participated with others 



no J. L. M. CUERY, A BIOGRAPHY 

in the canvass. The crowds were large, and the debates 
warm and excited. Several times I spoke in face of 
threats of personal violence. Having obtained one of 
the little ''yellow books" (which I now possess) contain- 
ing the oaths and ritual, I used them unsparingly. I rode 
on horseback to our various appointments, and never 
more enjoyed intellectual encounters. My whole ticket 
was elected, I leading the poll, receiving a majority of 
2,550. I was on the day of the election thirty miles from 
the Court House, and rode that night on horseback, 
reaching the Square about 2 a.m., to be received by as 
glad and enthusiastic an assemblage as ever rejoiced over 
an election. Letters came from prominent men, in vari- 
ous parts of the State, warmly congratulating me, as 
Talladega from the ability of the Know-Nothing candi- 
dates was one of the chief battle fields in the State. 

The Know-Nothing party was, as stated by Curry, 
a secret organization, the chief plank of whose plat- 
form was ^'America for Americans." It masque- 
raded behind mystic symbolism, and the parapher- 
nalia of ritual ceremony. It had supreme lodges 
and subordinate lodges, and degrees, and grips and 
passwords. It had appeared first in 1852; when, 
as is often the case with embryo political organiza- 
tions, it contented itself with interrogating the can- 
didates of other parties. Its secret name at first 
was '^The Sons of 76, or the Order of the Star- 
Spangled Banner.'^ Later it became '^The National 
Council of the United States of North America." 
Its derisive nickname by those who vainly inter- 
rogated its members as to its program and signifi- 
cance, only to receive the reply, ^'I don't know," 
was that of '^ Know-No things." It largely sup- 
planted the Whig party in the South and Southwest. 
After an overwhelming and crushing defeat at the 



THE BONE OF CONTENTION 111 

hands of the Virginia democracy, under the leader- 
ship of Wise in the gubernatorial campaign of 1855, 
its power began to wane, and its members deserted 
it, as rats leave a sinking ship. In spite of its loudly- 
vaunted Americanism, it was distinctly un-American 
in its proscription for religious principle, and in its 
organization as a political party upon a basis of 
secrecy. Its members, abandoning both of these 
un-American dogmas, finally merged in the Con- 
stitutional Union party, which nominated and sup- 
ported Bell and Everett in the portentous presiden- 
tial election of 1860. 

Curry's innate spirit of hostility to any political 
proscription chimed in with his established princi- 
ples of democracy in this contest; and his triumphant 
campaign, which culminated in his enthusiastic re- 
ception in the late hours of election night by his ex- 
cited and elated supporters, had been won with an 
energy and an eloquence that had been as effective 
as they were sincere. 

The legislature met in the State House at Mont- 
gomery in December, 1855. The Speaker, Richard 
W. Walker, was not only a political but a personal 
friend of Cm*ry's; and he again became chairman of 
the Committee on Internal Improvements, and also 
retained his place on the committee on Education, 
and on the joint committee to examine and audit 
the accounts of the Bank Commissioner. During 
this session he made speeches on subjects of internal 
improvement, on the proper disposition of the bills 
of the State bank, and on the American party. The 
last was in reply to the Honorable C. C. Langdon 
of Mobile; and created so unusual and distinct an 
impression for ability and eloquence upon its hearers, 



112 J. L. M. CUERY, A BIOGRAPHY 

that its publication was requested by every demo- 
cratic member of the house. Its author, however, 
with characteristic modesty, decHned the proffered 
request; and the speech, Hke many other unusual 
and unreported specimens of human eloquence, 
passed into the limbo of forgetfulness. 

The geological bill, which in the preceding session 
had become a law, continued an object of interest 
and improvement with him; and a report upon it 
and its operations, from his committee on Internal 
Improvements, written and presented by him, and 
of which a thousand copies were printed and cir- 
culated in the State, emphasized its importance, and 
added vitality and effect to its provisions. 

He had been a delegate from his county to the 
State democratic conventions of 1847 and 1852; and 
he was again elected to that of 1856, whose function 
it was, among others, to choose delegates to the 
National Democratic Convention, which met in 
Cincinnati, June 2 of that year, and nominated 
Buchanan and Breckinridge on a strict-construction 
platform, which included a condemnation of Know- 
Nothingism, an approval of the Kansas-Nebraska 
bill, and the substitution of what its adversaries 
called ''Squatter Sovereignty" in place of the pro- 
visions of the Missouri Compromise. 

All these doctrines were highly acceptable to 
Curry, who belonged to the school of Calhoun de- 
mocracy, the members of which dominated the con- 
vention. He was made a presidential elector on the 
State democratic ticket of that year. 

"I canvassed the district thoroughly," he writes of his 
own part in the campaign, "and spoke also in Selma and 
Marion. I received the highest vote of any of the elec- 



THE BONE OF CONTENTION 113 

tors; and went to Montgomery to meet the Electoral 
College and cast the vote of the State for Mr. Buchanan." 

His personal and political popularity, extending 
from his county, in which, in three successive legis- 
lative campaigns, he had led the poll as a candidate, 
was now illustrated in the State at large in the fact 
which he so modestly states, that he ''received the 
highest vote of any of the electors." This popu- 
larity, when first evidenced, was attributed by him 
to his ''small size, his youthful appearance, and the 
popularity of his father." As a matter of fact, it 
was undoubtedly due to his powers as a popular 
orator, and to his equipment as a well-informed 
politician of pleasing address, of profound convic- 
tions, of frank expression, and of great energy and 
enterprise. Of himself at this period he writes: — 

Nominally practising law, I attended to my farm and 
read much of politics and miscellaneous literature. I 
desired to prepare myself to be a statesman, and my 
reading was largely in that line. 

Besides his other work, already noticed, he wrote 
at this time a great deal for the newspapers. His 
close connection with the Talladega Watchtower, 
which had begun soon after his return from Harvard, 
continued; and in 1856, nearly all of the Watchtower 
editorials were from his pen. He says: — 

"I wrote much for the above paper, and became a 
tolerable printer, and an expert proof-reader. Reading 
proof I consider a valuable part of my education." 



CHAPTER VII 



BLEEDING KANSAS " 



In the fall of 1856 occurred the Presidential elec- 
tion, with the extension or restoration of slavery in 
the Territories, the burning question of the hour. 
Buchanan and Breckinridge, the democratic can- 
didates, were elected over the opposing Know- 
Nothing and Republican tickets, whose nominees 
were respectively Millard Fillmore and Andrew 
Jackson Donelson on the former, and John C. Fre- 
mont and WiUiam L. Dayton on the latter. The 
democratic ticket received 174 electoral votes; that 
of the RepubUcan party 114, and the Know-Nothing 
candidates 8. Buchanan and Breckinridge were in- 
augurated March 4, 1857; and the Supreme Court 
of the United States rendered its opinion in the 
Dred Scott case two days later. It is significant of 
the inflamed condition of the public mind on the 
question of slavery, that although this case had been 
decided in 1856, the great tribunal which had deter- 
mined it thought it best to withhold its opinion 
until the excitement of the Presidential election 
should have subsided. 

In May, 1857, a democratic convention for the 
Congressional district in Alabama, which included 
Talladega, met in that town, and nominated Curry 
for Congress, his competitor, Colonel Griffin, retiring 
after hearing two of Curry's speeches in the canvass. 

114 



'' BLEEDING KANSAS '' 115 

The democratic candidate made political addresses 
in every county in his district, although without op- 
position, in the effort as he states ''to instruct the 
people on grave political issues and the character of 
the government.'' 

After the election in November, Curry, with his 
family, consisting of his wife, two children, and a 
servant, went to Washington, and took rooms at 
the Ebbitt House, where his kinsman, L. Q. C. 
Lamar, then a member from Mississippi, and several 
colleagues from Alabama, were established. Ala- 
bama in this session was represented in the lower 
house by James A. Stallworth, Eh S. Slater, James 
F. Dowdell, Sydenham Moore, George S. Houston, 
Williamson R. W. Cobb, and J. L. M. Curry. The 
Senators were Clement C. Clay, Jr., and Benjamin 
Fitzpatrick. 

Congress met on the 7th of December, with a sub- 
stantial democratic majority in both houses, al- 
though in the preceding Presidential election there 
had been no popular majority for any one of the 
three tickets in the field; and Fremont would have 
been elected if Pennsylvania and Illinois had voted 
Repubhcan. But the breach had not yet come in 
the democracy between the Douglas democrats, and 
those who upheld the doctrines of Calhoun under the 
leadership of Breckinridge and Yancey and Toombs 
and Davis, — a breach that divided the great poUtical 
organization and lit the fires of civil war four years 
later in the ascendancy of the young Repubhcan 
party. In the Senate there were 39 Democrats, 20 
Republicans and 5 Know-Nothings. In the House 
the Democratic membership numbered 131, the 
Republican 92, and the Know-Nothings 14. James 



116 J. L. M. CUERY, A BIOGRAPHY 

L. Orr of South Carolina was elected Speaker; and 
Curry was assigned to the unimportant committee 
on Revolutionary claims, whose membership never- 
theless included three other important personages in 
Owen Lovejoy, of lUinois, Henry L. Dawes, of 
Massachusetts, and Samuel S. Cox, of Ohio, later of 
New York. Lovejoy, the fanatic and fiery aboli- 
tionist, had been moved twenty years before by the 
murder of his brother, Elijah P. Lovejoy, at the 
hands of a mob in Alton, Illinois, to espouse the anti- 
slavery cause, which he advocated thenceforth with 
an energy, an eloquence, and a relentlessness that 
made him conspicuous among its restless and resist- 
less protagonists. Dawes, like Curry, was serving 
his first term. He succeeded Charles Sumner as 
Senator from Massachusetts, and held conspicuous 
position in the affairs of the country for a period long 
subsequent to the close of the War between the 
States. Cox had been a newspaper editor, in which 
position he had achieved the soubriquet of '' Sunset '^ 
from a glowing and iridescent quality of his editor- 
ials, combined with the initials of his name. He 
was a voluminous writer and an effective and humor- 
ous speaker. 

Curry makes record of the fact that his Revolu- 
tionary Claims Committee had little work to do. 
Nevertheless, he sought and found other opportu- 
nities for work; and on the 10th of February, 1858, 
he made his first appearance on the floor in the pres- 
entation of a memorial of the General Assembly of 
Alabama in favor of the establishment of an armory 
in Shelby County, which was referred to the Com- 
mittee on Military Affairs, and ordered to be printed. 
In the light of later events, it seems a significant and 



'^ BLEEDING KANSAS '' 117 

a most ominous act; but there is nothing to show 
that Curry, in presenting the wishes of his State in 
the premises, had any anticipation of the early sub- 
sequent need of armories in the South. 

Two weeks later, on the 23rd of February, he made 
his first set speech in the House. It was in the course 
of the Kansas debate and upon the Kansas question. 

It was such a speech as one would expect from a 
young Alabamian of that day, fervid, intense, defiant 
and thrilling with the conviction that abolition 
meant economic and social ruin to the people of his 
section. He was speaking from the heart when he 
shouted in this maiden speech: — 

With a like spirit, in total disregard of human suffering, 
John Quincy Adams, with all the fervor of hate and 
fanaticism, on the floor of the House, in 1844, gave utter- 
ance to the sentiment: "Let the abolition of slavery come; 
by whatever means — by blood or otherwise — let it come. " 
If it did come, commerce would languish, factories would 
stop, banks would suspend, credit would expire, and 
universal woe would brood over this land. The fearful 
panic now upon us has impaired confidence, produced 
ruin and distress, bankrupted individuals and corporations, 
diminished trade, and inflicted losses from which twenty 
years will not recover us; and yet these consequences are 
trivial and insignificant compared with the sudden de- 
struction of two thousand millions of property, the up- 
rooting of social institutions, and the perishing of a nation. 
The sirocco's blast, the tornado's sweep, the earthquake's 
heavings, the ravages of the pestilence, faintly foreshadow 
the appalling desolation which would ensue upon such a 
catastrophe. 

The story of what came to be known in the politi- 
cal parlance of the period as '^Bleeding Kansas'^ is 



118 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

as full of bitterness and woe as a Greek tragedy. 
The very name reeks with the evil memories of bor- 
der ruffianism, of intolerance, of the ferocity of 
human hate growing out of a quasi-moral political 
question, of Lecompton constitutions and Topeka 
conventions, while above all looms the fanatical and 
sinister figure of ^^Ossawatomie'' Brown. 

Kansas for a number of years had been the battle- 
ground between the extension and the restriction of 
slavery. As the territory had advanced towards a 
condition which entitled it to statehood, the contest 
had increased in violence. The opponents of either 
side were constantly up and doing. The abolition- 
ists of New England poured into the Territory their 
hordes of subsidized colonists. The slave-holding 
Missourians sent bands of pro-slavery settlers with 
guns in their hands. With an eagerness that epit- 
omized the rapidly crystallizing sentiment of the two 
diverging sections of the Republic, the two sides 
sought to possess themselves of the coming state. 

Curry writes of the situation: — 

Douglas of Illinois and the Democrats, to get rid of 
what was called the "Wilmot Proviso," sought to flank 
the question by leaving it to the people to regulate their 
domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to 
the Constitution of the United States. Another question 
afterwards arose, whether the ''inhabitants of a terri- 
tory while in territorial pupilage could abolish slavery," 
or must that question be determined by the ''people" 
assembled in convention to frame a constitution, their 
organic law. 

Both parties in Kansas had framed constitutions, 
the anti-slavery men at Topeka, in October, 1855, 
and the pro-slavery men in October, 1857; and both 



''BLEEDING KANSAS'' 119 

parties were seeking the admission of Kansas as a 
state of the Union, each under its respective con- 
stitution. Curry favored its admission as a state 
''with or without slavery, as the constitution may 
require," but in no uncertain attitude as to which 
constitution he preferred. 

"The rejection of Kansas, with the Lecompton Con- 
stitution," he said, "speaks the dissolution of, or sec- 
tionaUzes the Democratic party, which is the strongest 
Hgament that binds the Union together. It will be the 
unmistakable annunciation that no more slave States are 
to be admitted into this Union; that the South is to be 
degraded and reduced to inferiority; that there is to be 
no extension of her limits, no enlargement of her boun- 
daries; that slavery shall be restricted with constantly 
narrowing confines; that for her, within this Union, 
there is to be no future but bleak, gloomy, hopeless 
despair." 

He dwelt upon "the lamentable results" of aboli- 
tion, as it was sought to be effected ; and he expressed 
his profound "conviction of the importance of the 
question, and the magnitude of the interests in- 
volved." He declared that he but echoed the senti- 
ment of his State, as authoritatively expressed by 
her General Assembly, and proclaimed his deter- 
mination to follow her lead. 

"I will not anticipate her course," he continued; "but 
recognizing to its fullest extent the right of secession, 
and owing to her my allegiance and fealty, when she 
calls I will respond; where she goes I will go; her people 
shall be my people, and her destiny my destiny." 

Thus, in the simple eloquence of scriptural 
phraseology, he voiced the political creed of the 



120 J. L. M. CUREY, A BIOGRAPHY 

democrats of the school of strict construction from 
Mr. Jefferson and Randolph of Roanoke and George 
Mason, down through Calhoun and Tyler to Breck- 
inridge and Jefferson Davis, with a clearness and a 
courage characteristic alike of the man and of the 
times. The battle call of the abolitionists for three 
decades had been ^'secession," not on account of 
the Constitution, but of slavery. Wendell Phillips 
of Massachusetts had said at a meeting in Boston, 
in May, 1849, ''We confess that we intend to trample 
under foot the constitution of this country.'^ And 
later he declared: — 

*' There is merit in the Republican party. It is this: 
It is the first sectional party ever organized in this country. 
* * * It is not national; it is sectional. It is the 
North arrayed against the South. * * * The first 
crack in the iceberg is visible; you will yet hear it go with 
a crack through the centre." 

William Lloyd Garrison had demanded in his pa- 
per. The Liberator, in September, 1855, ''a Northern 
Confederacy, with no Union with slave-holders"; 
and in the same paper of June 20, 1856, had de- 
nounced the United States Constitution as ''a 
covenant with death and a league with hell." Rev. 
0. B. Frothingham, in the May of the preceding 
year, had said: ''He believed that this Union ef- 
fectually prevented them from advancing in the 
least degree the work of the slave's redemption. . . . 
As to the word 'Union,' they all knew it was a politi- 
cal catchword." 

Curry, to whom the compact theory of our gov- 
ernment seemed irrefutable, was ready for secession 
because of a violated constitution, whose violation 



'' BLEEDING KANSAS '' 121 

concluded its pact, and because he believed that 
that constitution itself, in reserving to the State 
the powers not expressly delegated to the Union, 
reserved to it the right, when it saw fit, to end its 
connection with the Union, in the exercise of its un- 
questionable sovereignty. That slavery itself was 
a thing to be gotten rid of, he doubtless held then, as 
many other southern Democrats held, who yet sup- 
ported it as a social institution that had become so 
inextricably interwoven with the fabric of the body 
politic, as to be incapable of release save by the 
fatal operation called Caesarian. Though in his later 
years his views of slavery became, in the light of 
time and experience greatly modified, and he found 
himself ^^glad that it is gone,'^ and wondered ''that 
I and others should have ever sanctioned and de- 
fended it," no subsequent event ever abated one 
jot or tittle of his faith in the strict construction of 
the Constitution, and in the doctrine of the rights 
of the States, with which the tremendously difficult 
question of slavery was so intimately and apparently 
inextricably involved. State sovereignty and the 
right of secession were boldly proclaimed and ably 
championed in this first speech of his in the halls of 
Congress. He came at last, as most others of his 
day and creed came, to accept the judgment of arms 
upon the question of secession; but his belief in the 
strict construction of the Constitution and the 
reserved rights of the States, as has been said, abode 
with him as part of his political creed, and he re- 
mained a Jeffersonian Democrat unto the last. 

*'In the light of subsequent experience, quite apart 
from constitutional questions," he wrote in his common- 
place book forty years afterwards with a significant 



122 J. L. M. CUREY, A BIOGRAPHY 

maintenance of the integrity of his poHtical thinking, 
*'I put here on record my gratitude that Kansas was not 
cursed with the institution of African slavery." 

This sentiment was a reasonable expression of the 
feeling that had animated Mr. Jefferson when he 
sought to incorporate into the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence a protest against the continuance of the 
slave trade, and to write into the ^^ Ordinance of 
'Eighty-seven" the prohibition of slavery in the 
Northwest Territory; that had made John Marshall 
the first President of the Colonization Society of 
Virginia; that had caused George Mason, in the 
Virginia Convention of 1788, having under consider- 
ation the adoption of the Federal Constitution, to 
denounce that clause of it which permitted the im- 
portation of slaves for twenty years; and that in- 
duced General Robert E. Lee and a host of other 
Southerners to manumit their slaves. The right of 
secession, advocated by the thoughtful southern 
ante-bellum Democrat, was advocated for the sake 
of constitutional liberty; and not, as in the case, at 
least, of the more violent northern abolitionist, on 
account of slavery. 

Curry's speech in the Kansas debate was listened 
to with marked interest and attention by his Con- 
gressional auditors, and it was widely circulated in 
printed form throughout the South. Greeley, in the 
Tribune, recognized its ability, and pronouncing it 
"si strong speech," said of its author: '^He is cer- 
tainly a powerful addition to the pro-slavery side 
of the House." 

Curry's habits of life at this time were character- 
istic of the man, and go far toward explaining his 
success in Congress as well as in his subsequent 



'' BLEEDING KANSAS »' 123 

career. He was a regular attendant at the E Street 
Baptist Church, whose pastor was Dr. Samson, 
President of Columbian College. An acquaintance 
thus began between the two men, which ripened 
through succeeding years into a valuable friendship. 
Through the influence of President Samson, Curry 
was invited to address the students of the College. 
The audience assembled in the Smithsonian build- 
ing; and he had the gratification of seeing among his 
auditors the President of the United States, Mr. 
Buchanan; General Lewis Cass, who had been a 
nominee of the national democratic party for the 
Presidential office; and Professor Joseph Henry, 
whose work as a physicist has left him a greater 
fame than that of more than one President of the 
Union; and whose splendid biography is epitomized 
in that of a later great physicist no less famous, who 
said of Henry that ^'he never engaged in an investi- 
gation or an enterprise which was to put a dollar into 
his own pocket, but aimed only at the general good 
of the world." 

Curry's devotion during this session of Congress 
to the duties of his office was diligent and conscien- 
tious. He was punctual in attendance, and alert 
and painstaking in his attention to the public matters 
which came before the House. In addition, he 
makes record that ^'business before the departments 
was plentiful; and correspondence was heavy; but 
by preventing accumulation of work, I was never 
behind, and rarely pressed. In those days members 
of Congress had no clerks." 

During this session a bill was introduced granting 
pensions to the soldiers of the War of 1812. Curry, 
with the well-grounded principles of the strict con- 



124 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

struction Democrat of the day, opposed it with 
vigor and abiUty. 

''No measure," he said later, "so satisJSed me of the 
general want of moral courage on the part of Represen- 
tatives. . . . Congress now yields readily to any 
pension claim, whether supported or not by valid proof. 
Then the House in Committee of the Whole, always 
defeated the measure ; but when the Yeas and Nays were 
called, the vote was different. Elihu Washburn, John 
Sherman, and Winter Davis among the Republicans, had 
the courage of their convictions, and recorded themselves 
in the negative." 

Convinced of the inexpediency and fundamental 
wrong of a system, which has since that time fastened 
itself with resistless and appalling power upon the 
Government, he opposed the Pension Bill in an 
elaborate speech on the floor of the House of Rep- 
resentatives. In this speech, which was made on 
April 27, 1858, he pointed out the extravagant pro- 
visions of the bill, and demonstrated the social, politi- 
cal and economic evils that may be expected to flow 
from the establishment and continuance of a sys- 
tem of pensions in a democratic government. The 
speech demonstrates the results of an extended in- 
vestigation and study of the subject, both in an 
historical and political-economic direction; and 
Curry himself subsequently regarded it as one of the 
best he ever made. ^'Some whispers of discontent," 
he says, ''were heard in my district; but my con- 
stituents had the good sense to approve." 

As an incident of this period of his life, he mentions 
with interest the fact of hearing Adelina Patti sing. 
She was then but little more than a child, being 
scarcely seventeen; but she had already long been 



'' BLEEDING KANSAS '' 125 

a familiar object of admiration and delight to the 
music-loving public of two hemispheres, that she 
had charmed with her beauty, grace and artistic 
skill. Curry, in making mention of the incident 
some twenty years later, says: '^ She was a young girl, 
but gave abundant prophecy of her present fame." 
The session of Congress continued until June 1, 
1858; and Curry and his family went home to spend 
the vacation, which lasted until the reassembling 
on December 6, 1858. Again the Pension Bill came 
to the front; and though apparently of almost in- 
significant consequence in comparison with the 
mighty subjects of which men's minds and hearts 
were full, afforded in itself a theme for the expres- 
sion of that constitutional interpretation about 
which the larger questions of slavery and abolition 
revolved. He was promulgating sound doctrine 
from the democratic standpoint, and that, so just, 
that political adversaries like Henry Winter Davis 
could take occasion to commend his position, when 
he said in further debate on the bill: — 

It is said by gentlemen upon this floor that no argu- 
ment as to the expense is an argument as to the merits 
of the bill. I take a different position. Sir, when you 
propose to tax the people of this country for the purpose 
of conferring a gratuity upon men who are not disabled, 
not needy, not objects of charity, — for this bill does not 
discriminate between the wealthy and the necessitous — 
then I contend that it is a legitimate line of argument 
to inquire into the expense under this bill, and to hold 
up to public view and observation the enormous amount 
which will be required to execute it. 

His legislative efforts as a Congressman were all 
in the direction of seeking to administer the govern- 



126 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

ment economically, prudently, and with due regard 
to constitutional restriction. On January 13, 1859, 
he offered a resolution, which was agreed to, requir- 
ing the Secretary of the Navy to furnish detailed 
information concerning the Navy Chaplains ap- 
pointed since 1813. The act seemed to be to ascer- 
tain whether any attempt was being made to subject 
non-Episcopal Chaplains to Episcopal forms; or 
whether in the religious practices of the American 
Navy there might be any suggestion of a violation 
of the spirit of constitutional freedom, which had 
found its great inception in the United States in 
Jefferson's immortal statute. 

Toward the latter part of the month of January, 
1859, he participated in the then pending Consular 
and Diplomatic Appropriation Bill, asserting an 
economical and democratic attitude against the 
sinecures and pretensions of ministers to unim- 
portant foreign courts, and proposing to reduce ex- 
pense and curtail patronage by reducing the number 
of foreign ministers. 

"My opposition to some, not all, of these measures,'' 
he declared, "grows out of the fact of their unnecessary 
expense and their conceded uselessness." 

It is believed that no vote of his can be found re- 
corded that did not favor, as opportunity occurred, 
a reduction in the number of offices, and a cutting 
down of appropriations. On February 2, 1859, 
when the Legislation Appropriation Bill was under 
discussion, he came to the front with a proposition 
to reduce expenses by putting an end to the publica- 
tion of the Congressional Debates. Undismayed by 
memories of the reports of the legislative discussions 



^' BLEEDING KANSAS '' 127 

which had for so many years engaged the talents of 
Seaton and Gales, and to the abridgment of which 
Thomas H. Benton had not disdained to apply his 
great industry and ability, Cm*ry attacked the bill 
by moving to strike out an item of $49,333.32 for 
printing the Congressional Globe, and for binding 
the same; and the further item of $18,046, ''for 
reporting proceedings.'^ He admitted that he had 
very little hope of the motion being adopted, but 
said he made it in entirely good faith. He regarded 
the publication of the debates of the House as use- 
less and costly; they crowded the mails, and were 
never read. 

''I believe there is no expenditure of this Government 
so useless and worthless," he declared, ''as that for the 
publication of the Congressional Globe. ... I do 
not propose to object to paying for what has already 
been done, but I propose to put a stop to future expenses 
of this kind." 

On the next day he made another speech against 
the system of printing and distributing the speeches 
of the House. ''The truth is," he asserted, "that 
with few exceptions, they are made that they may 
be printed and not that they may be read." 

A few days later, Mr. Francis P. Blair of Missouri 
moved the purchase of one hundred copies of Ben- 
ton's Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, for 
the use of the Congressional Library and the libraries 
of the two houses. Mr. Garnett of Virginia opposed 
the resolution, because he thought it "wrong in 
principle," and later he found and expressed other 
reasons of opposition. Others took part in the dis- 
cussion; and Curry moved to amend Mr. Blair's 



128 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

resolution by adding, '^one hundred copies of Ap- 
pleton's edition of Calhoun's Works." 

Mr. Phelps of Missouri rose to a point of order: 
^'1 submit," said he, ^'that the amendment of the 
gentleman from Alabama is out of order." The 
point of order was overruled; and Curry said: — 

I have not examined Benton's abridgment of the 
debates sufficiently to test their fidelity and accuracy. 
I have, however, purchased a copy for my own library. 
But, sir, I have to say that if it is as full of prejudice, 
and I had almost said of malignity, as his ''Thirty Years 
in the Senate," I think it ought to be burned by the 
common hangman. However that may be, if Congress 
intends by this special piece of favoritism to purchase 
Benton's Abridgment, I think they ought to purchase, 
at least by way of antidote, Calhoun's Works. 

To this Mr. Clark of Missouri replied: — 

I am opposed to the amendment of the gentleman from 
Alabama. It is with great regret, indeed, that I have 
heard the gentleman allow himself to pronounce upon 
this great work of the country as he has done. Sir, 
Colonel Benton's Abridgment of the Debates of Congress 
is a great national work. Most gentlemen present have 
examined it, and will bear me witness that it is marked 
with the strictest fidelity and accuracy. I admit that 
Mr. Benton had his partialities, but they were not 
stronger than those of the favorite of the gentleman 
from Alabama, Mr. Calhoun. They were rivals, and 
have had their day. Both were great men of the coun- 
try; but their works are widely different. 

Mr. Cochrane of New York thereupon injected 
into the merry war of books and words this query : — 

I desire to ask the gentleman from Alabama whether 



'' BLEEDING KANSAS '' 129 

Mr. Calhoun's Works are not already in the library of 
Congress? 

Curry replied: ''They are, and I hope gentlemen will 
read them and improve their politics"; to which Mr. 
McQueen of South Carohna added: ''I will say to the 
gentleman that Mr. Benton's work is also there." 

Curry's amendment was lost; and the incident, 
trivial in itself, is related merely for the sake of il- 
lustrating and emphasizing that dominant and sig- 
nificant characteristic, which lasted him through 
life, of losing no opportunity, however small, of 
seeking to impress his convictions concerning politi- 
cal or moral righteousness and truth upon the minds 
of those with whom he came in contact. 

On February 24, 1859, he made an extended 
speech on expenditures and the tariff, advocating 
the democratic doctrine of ^^retrenchment and 
economy," and inveighing against ^'onerous taxes," 
and the injustice and unconstitutionality of a '^ pro- 
tective" tariff. The closing sentence of this speech 
is worthy of quotation, as an epitome of the political 
doctrines of the State-rights democracy of the 
period : — ■ 

Sir, there is virtue, power, victory, invincibility yet in 
Democratic principles; but to secure and merit success 
there must be a self-lustration and a speedy return to 
the rigid State-rights and free-trade principles of John 
Taylor, and Jefferson, of Polk and Pierce, of Calhoun 
and Woodbury. On such alone can the Government be 
safely administered, and on such alone depend our 
security and prosperity. 

It was the voice of one, invoking in the wilderness, 
among others more distinguished, the now almost 



130 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

forgotten names and obsolete political philosophy 
of John Taylor of Caroline, the Virginian, and of 
Levi Woodbury, the great defender of the Inde- 
pendent Treasury System, and 'Hhe rock of New 
England democracy.'^ 



CHAPTER VIII 

A FIRST AND LAST ALLEGIANCE 

"When Congress met in December, 1859," Curry- 
makes record at a later period, ''the two parties. Demo- 
cratic and Republican, were nearly balanced, a handful 
of 'Americans' holding the control. John Sherman and 
Thomas S. Bocock were the Republican and Democratic 
candidates for Speaker, and neither could get the re- 
quired majority. During the autumn John Brown had 
made his incendiary raid into Virginia, and had been 
arrested, tried and hung. The North generally sympa- 
thized with the fanatical felon. One Richard Rowan 
Helper of North Carolina had published a pamphlet on 
Slavery, unjust to the South, which Republican members 
had endorsed and circulated. Passions were much in- 
flamed. Sectional issues were assuming shape, and sec- 
tionalizing parties. The elements were brewing for a 
gigantic and bloody contest. During the ballotings while 
the Clerk presided, many inflammatory speeches were 
made ; and there were very nearly several times, personal 
collisions. On December 10th, I spoke on the Progress 
of Anti-slaveryism, trying to present a calm and philo- 
sophical view of the subject. My speech, temperate in 
language but firm and argumentative, was widely copied, 
and I received many letters asking for copies." 

The times were out of joint, and temperance of 
thought and speech were ceasing to dominate men's 
minds. Slavery, which had agitated the country 
for more than two decades, as the subject of political 
discussion, and around which as an object revolved 

131 



132 J. L. M. CUEEY, A BIOGRAPHY 

great questions of constitutional construction and 
interpretation^ was now not only a burning but a 
flaming issue. Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe had 
written, and her publishers had printed and cir- 
culated in America more than half a million copies 
of ^^ Uncle Tom's Cabin/' the most ingenious and 
powerful political pamphlet in its effect ever com- 
posed in the western hemisphere. Judge Taney and 
a majority of the Supreme Court had decided the 
Dred Scott case in favor of the pursuing master and 
against the recalcitrant slave in the free-state, and 
Benjamin R. Curtis, one of the ablest of the many 
able jurisprudents of New England, had delivered 
a dissenting opinion in the same great case, which 
had given pause to the purpose and daunted the 
intellectual courage of many of the most thoughtful 
pro-slavery advocates; Hinton R. Helper, a non- 
slave holding Southerner, had stirred the passions 
and inflamed the hearts of the North with a mighty 
exposition of the wrongs experienced by the poor 
white man of the South by reason of negro-slavery, 
in his ^'Impending Crisis," a complementary and 
more bitter indictment of slavery even than Mrs. 
Stowe's book; '^Bleeding Kansas" had held the 
centre of the political stage in a passionate and 
ferocious struggle over two constitutions; and out 
of it John Brown had emerged in the darkness 
of abolition secrecy, with his murderous pikes of 
'^freedom" in the hands of his fugitive slave-fol- 
lowers; and had been captured in his assault upon 
the United States Government Arsenal at Harper's 
Ferry by Federal troops, and hung for treason and 
inciting insurrection, by the authorities of the Com- 
monwealth of Virginia. The quasi-moral question 



A FIRST AND LAST ALLEGIANCE 133 

of slavery, injected into the political body of the 
times had served, as such questions in politics in- 
variably serve, to stir the fiercest and most elemental 
passions of men. Against the abolition slogan, that 
because of slavery the Federal Constitution was ^'a. 
league with death and a covenant with hell," the 
strict construction South continued to chant its 
bold appeal to the Constitution itself. ^^ After all, 
it is not the Union — the Union alone upon which 
the reflecting man of this country bases his hopes 
and rests his affections. With him the Union is 
secondary in importance to the principles it was de- 
signed to perpetuate and establish," was the thought 
of the Cotton States democrat, as voiced a short 
time before by a representative from Curry's own 
State. The ^irrepressible conflict" loomed porten- 
tous and dreadful in the almost immediate future. 

In Curry's speech, above referred to, made on the 
floor of the House five days after its meeting on 
December 5th, 1859, he enlarged upon the desperate 
temper of the times, the tremendous growth of 
abolition sentiment, and the logical and inevitable 
results to flow from existing conditions: — 

*'If I may be allowed to make a personal allusion," he 
said, ''in 1844 I myself stood in Faneuil Hall, and heard 
a speech of James G. Birney, the Liberty-party candidate 
for the Presidency, when there was hardly a baker's 
dozen present to share with him his liberty-loving senti- 
ments; and some of those who were there were, like 
myself, attracted from curiosity to hear a speech upon 
such a subject from a candidate for such a position. It 
is thus that anti-slaveryism has swelled, enlarged, and 
grown, until at the last presidential election, a mere 
political adventurer, unknown to the multitude, without 



134 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

political antecedents, received one million four hundred 
thousand votes in Northern States. And yet you tell 
us, the distinguished gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Corwin) 
told us, that we need not have any apprehension or feel 
any special alarm." 

Curry's characterization of John C. Fremont is 
scarcely consistent with his boast of the temperance 
to be found in the language of this speech. Fremont 
was already a distinguished man, even though an 
^'adventurer'' in the lofty sense of the word, when 
the young Republican party of the country had made 
him its standard-bearer in 1856; and had, inde- 
pendent of his '^ adventures," by that strange magic 
that often moves the minds of democracies, outside 
of political principles, won the hearts of many of 
the old Jacksonian Democrats by winning the hand 
of Jessie Benton, the daughter of the stout Mis- 
sourian who had, independent and alone, in the 
earlier days of the century carried his '^ expunging 
resolutions" in the United States Senate, and wiped 
from the august record of that body the condemna- 
tion of his great chieftain, Andrew Jackson. Yet, 
after all is said, under the influence of those com- 
pelling days the one million four hundred thousand 
votes for Fremont in the Northern States in 1856 
would have been given for a graven image, standing 
for what he stood for. 

''Damn you, sir," said John Randolph of Roanoke, 
in response to the proffered thanks from the hustings 
of one of his neighbors for whom as a party candidate 
he had just voted, and to whom he had declined 
to speak for twenty years, "I am not voting for you, 
but for the Democratic party." 

Curry's prognosis was correct, however intern- 



A FIRST AND LAST ALLEGIANCE 135 

perate his description of Fremont; and it was all in 
vain to his prophetic soul that Corwin and his com- 
peers proclaimed ^' Peace! peace!" when there was 
no peace. He saw with the clearness of vision, that 
was not given to all who thought as he thought, to 
see, that ^Hhe vitalizing, animating principle of the 
Republican party is opposition to slavery." But 
with this clarity of foresight, he perceived none the 
less the other side, — the grave alternative, — equally 
clearly; and portrayed that perception, and his al- 
legiance to its consequences, with the high courage 
that he never failed, when needful, to exhibit. 

"Every separate community," he continued, "must be 
able to protect itself. Power must be met by power. 
If the majority can control this government, interpreting 
the Constitution at its will, then this government is a 
despotism. Whether wise or unwise, whether merciful or 
cruel, it is a despotism still. 

"Mr. Clerk, this power of self-protection, according to 
my judgment and my theory of politics, resides in each 
State. Each has the right of secession, the right of 
interposition, for the arrest of evils within its limits. 

" Mr. Clerk, if our . . . friends . . . (in Con- 
gress) ... be not able to interpose for the security 
of the South, and for the preservation of the Constitution, 
I, for one, shall counsel immediate and effective resistance, 
and shall urge the people to fling themselves upon the 
reserved rights and the inalienable sovereignty of the 
State to which I owe my first and last allegiance." (Ap- 
plause.) 

The tension of the times was indicated in the 
fierce and protracted struggle over the Speakership 
of the House, which continued for eight weeks before 



136 J L. M. CUERY, A BIOGRAPHY 

a Speaker was finally chosen. The Republicans 
had a plurality over the Democrats, but the Know- 
Nothings held the balance of power. John Sherman 
of Ohio, the Republican candidate for Speaker, and 
Thomas S. Bocock of Virginia, the Democratic can- 
didate, were appropriate and fit representatives of 
their respective parties on the great issue; and the 
debates, that at times grew from anger to ferocity, 
circled about the John Brown raid and Helper's 
abolitionist ^'Impending Crisis." Sherman came at 
one time within three votes of election; but both 
he and Bocock failed in the conclusion, and William 
Pennington, of New Jersey, a moderate Republican, 
was elected to the Speakership. Sherman became 
later one of the most distinguished leaders of his 
party; while Bocock was, in 1861, elected a member 
of the first Congress of the Confederate States, and 
upon its permanent organization became its Speaker. 
A short time before his death in 1903, Curry, in 
allusion to what he calls "sl pleasant correspondence 
and interview with Mr. Edwards Pierrepont, our 
Minister to England," growing out of his speech 
above referred to, and doubtless in extenuation of 
its note of certainty, says: — 

In after years, the decade having passed, I sent him 
(Mr. Pierrepont) a speech made before the Georgia 
legislature, in which I said that the man or woman, 
who assumed to understand and provide an adequate 
remedy for the negro problem was a fanatic or sl fool. 
In reply he asked leave to amend by striking out "or^^ 
and inserting "and.^^ 

'^ Southern members," wrote Curry, in 1876, concern- 
ing these stirring events, ''were generally too violent 
and personally denunciatory. Some attained a cheap 



A FIRST AND LAST ALLEGIANCE 137 

newspaper notoriety by attacks on Northern representa- 
tives; and, I doubt not, enhanced the cruelties of the 
war, as many of those representatives remembered the 
bitter words, and thirsted for revenge." 

He concludes his account of the struggle over the 
Speakership, in which as a democratic teller, he 
kept the tally-sheet of the votes, with the statement 
that Governor Pennington, the successful candidate, 
was "si weak old man," and '^had no qualifications 
for the position." 

In the appointment of committees, Curry was put 
on that of Naval Affairs, the chairman of which was 
Mr. Schuyler Colfax of Indiana; ^'and was thus," 
he says, ^ thrown into pleasant relations with such 
officers as Buchanan, Dahlgren, Magruder, etc." 

Curry's fame as a debater on the floor of the House 
became well established during this time; and when 
a resolution of censure against the President was 
introduced in that body, growing out of the sale of 
Fort Snelling, Mr. Buchanan sent for Curry and de- 
sired him to undertake his defense against the ac- 
cusation contained in the resolution. This Curry 
made ready to do; and the notes for his speech pre- 
pared for the occasion, but never used, because the 
matter was not pressed, were found among his papers 
after his death. 

On February 16, 1860, he submitted a resolution, 
that was unanimously agreed to, instructing the 
Committee on Accounts to inquire into the expedi- 
ency of some additional legislation securing greater 
accountability and economy in the disbursement of 
the contingent fund. With a high sense of his 
representative responsibility, he remained a ^ Watch- 
dog of the Treasury" during his whole stay in Con- 



138 J. L. M. CUERY, A BIOGRAPHY 

gress. He was ever eager in seeking the enforce- 
ment of an economic administration of the govern- 
ment, so long as he remained in it and of it, which 
he nevertheless showed himself ready to abandon, 
and if necessary to destroy, for the sake of a funda- 
mental principle. 

On March 14, following, he addressed the House 
on the Constitutional Rights of the States in the 
Territories, discussing Slavery, State Sovereignty, the 
powers of Congress in the Territories, ^'Squatter Sov- 
ereignty,'^ and all the host of incidental matters that 
garnish the history of that tremendous epoch. 

'African slavery," he said, ''is now a great fact — a 
political, social, industrial, humanitarian fact. Its chief 
product is 'King,^ and freights northern vessels, drives 
northern machinery, feeds northern laborers, and clothes 
the entire population. Northern no less than Southern 
capital and labor are dependent in great degree upon it; 
and these results were wholly unanticipated by the good 
men who are so industriously persuaded as clouds of 
witnesses against the institution." 

He spoke of it, and thought of it, and maintained 
it, and fortified it as an ^institution," with the logic 
and the eloquence of profound and patriotic con- 
viction; deeming it as Mr. Calhoun described it: 
''What is called slavery is, in reality, a political in- 
stitution, essential to the peace, safety and prosperity 
of those States of the Union in which it exists." 
Before he was ten years older Curry utterly aban- 
doned this theory of slavery and came to regard it 
as an economic curse from which Southern society 
was happily relieved. 

In his speech of March 14 he exhibited an unusual 
power of eloquence and ability; and at the end of 



A FIEST AND LAST ALLEGIANCE 139 

his hour, his time was extended by unanimous con- 
sent, in order that he might go on. He continued 
for some while longer, with an address of ever grow- 
ing vigor and force, which found its peroration in a 
stirring allusion to the refusal of the Republican 
party to admit Kansas into the Union under the 
Lecompton constitution. 

This speech attracted especial attention to him 
as one of the ablest of the Southern representatives 
in Congress; and was so disturbing in its effects 
upon the Douglas, or ^^Anti-Lecompton" Demo- 
crats, of whom there were then the ill-boding number 
of thirteen in the House, that the Mobile Register, 
the leading Douglas newspaper in the South, edited 
by the Honorable John Forsythe, devoted eight or 
ten successive articles to an elaborate reply. 

A slight incident in a man's career will often serve 
to illustrate his character more than many of his 
most ambitious acts. On June 4, 1860, Curry op- 
posed the payment to the grandchildren of a certain 
Revolutionary officer of a sum of money that had 
been voted him by Congress, but not paid. He 
said: ''I have examined a great many of these 
Revolutionary claims, and I have never found a just 
one yet." His idea seemed to be that of the Texas 
judge, who replied, to the plea of the young lawyer 
defending the criminal, to the effect that it was 
better for ninety-nine guilty men to escape than for 
one innocent person to suffer, with the sententious 
observation that the ninety-nine guilty ones had 
'^already escaped." Curry thought that the right- 
eous Revolutionary claims had long since been paid. 
Upon learning that the children of the officer were 
dead, he asserted: ''Then his grandchildren, in this 



140 J. L. M. CUERY, A BIOGRAPHY 

claim are speculating on the patriotism of their 
ancestor.'' 

But in the same month, in kindly and striking 
contrast with this stern attitude of mind, we find 
him, in his last utterance of the session, saying: — 

Mr. Speaker, the other day I objected to a bill reported 
by the gentleman from New Hampshire from the Com- 
mittee of Claims, because the report stated no facts. On 
examination of the Senate report, I find that the facts 
are fully stated; and as I did injustice to a very worthy 
old man, as I think, I would like very much, if the House 
will indulge me, to repair the wrong I have done him. 

The House adjourned June 18th, 1860, with 
^'bleeding Kansas "still a territory, and Slave State 
and Free State confronting each the other, in fierce 
hostility. Curry, travelling homeward through Ten- 
nessee, reached Talladega on June 27th, the day 
before the withdrawing delegates from the Demo- 
cratic Charleston Convention gathered in Baltimore, 
and nominated Breckinridge and Lane as the can- 
didates of the states rights and slavery cotton states 
Democracy. 



CHAPTER IX 

THE DAWN OF WAR 

Madame De Remusat has recorded the striking 
saying of the great French Emperor, that '^poUtical 
hatred is hke a pair of spectacles, — one sees every- 
body, every opinion or every sentiment, only through 
the glass of one's passions." To such a pitch had 
political excitement risen in 1860, that Napoleon's 
cynicism had become an expression of commonplace 
truth. 

Nearly two months before the adjournment of 
Congress, the Democratic National Convention had 
met in Charleston, South Carolina. The division 
of the country into the sections which Mr. Jefferson 
had anticipated from the passage of the Missouri 
Compromise, now found its reproduction in the 
council chamber of Democracy itself. The two fac- 
tions in the party, re-affirming each the strict con- 
struction doctrines of many previous Democratic 
platforms, aligned themselves sectionally by North 
and South upon the questions of Douglas' ^^ Popular 
Sovereignty," the Dred Scott case, and the right of 
Congress or of Territorial legislatures to prohibit 
slavery in the Territories. After a bitter and mo- 
mentous struggle, in which the few Northern anti- 
Douglas delegates out-heroded Herod in their op- 
position to '^Squatter Sovereignty," the Convention 
adopted the Douglas platform, and after a prolonged 
session and an adjournment to Baltimore, nominated 

141 



142 J. L. M. CUERY, A BIOGRAPHY 

''the Little Gianf of Illinois as the party's can- 
didate for President, with Herschel V. Johnson of 
Georgia as his running mate; while with vociferous 
insistence Benjamin F. Butler and Caleb Gushing of 
Massachusetts continued to cast their votes for 
President for Jefferson Davis of Mississippi. 

The Breckimidge wing of the party, ten days 
later, met also in Baltimore, and nominated Breck- 
inridge and Lane. The Constitutional Union party, 
the remnant of the former American or ''Know- 
Nothing" organization, still staggering under the 
deadly blow dealt it in Virginia, in 1855, by Henry 
A. Wise, had in the preceding month met, also in 
Baltimore, and with what seems in the retrospect 
almost such a sense of humor as was possessed by 
the jester who defined a political platform as "some- 
thing to get on by," had nominated Bell and Everett, 
on the glittering and general proposition that the 
decrepit party stood for "The Constitution of the 
Country, the Union of the States, and the enforce- 
ment of the laws." 

In Massachusetts "The Battle Hymn of the 
Republic" was taking form in an abolitionist 
woman's brain; while in Louisiana a young school- 
teacher was dreaming of the " Marsellaise " of the 
Confederacy. Within a year after the Whig-Know- 
Nothing-Constitutional Party sought to still ele- 
mental passions with phrases, Mrs. Julia Ward 
Howe had written the greatest political lyric of 
America: — 

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of 

the Lord: 
He is trampling out the vintage where his grapes 

of wrath are stored, 



THE DAWN OF WAR 143 

He has loosed the fateful lightnings of his ter- 
rible swift sword — 
His truth is marching on; 

and James Ryder Randall had put into words, and 
the Virginian Gary girls had put into music, the 
soul of war; and a new-born and short-lived nation 
was chanting in the South: — 

The despot's heel is on thy shore, 

Maryland, my Maryland! 
His torch is at thy temple door, 

Maryland, my Maryland! 

For the young and aggressive party of anti- 
slavery, and of loose construction, Mr. Lincoln had 
set the pace in a series of tremendous debates for 
the Senatorship in Illinois, two years before, in 
which he had nevertheless gone down in temporary 
defeat before the arguments and eloquence of 
Douglas. But the logic of Lincoln's reiterated as- 
sertion in that great debate, that the country could 
not continue '^ half-slave and half-free," was now 
mingling with the mighty passions that had sprung 
out of the John Brown episode. There was no 
evasion nor dissension in the vigorous enunciation 
of political principles, written into the Republican 
platform of 1860, when its convention assembled in 
May, at Chicago, and nominated as its candidates 
Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin. This doc- 
ument proclaimed in the confident notes of an un- 
mistakable purpose, a loose construction of the 
Federal Constitution. It appealed to the Declara- 
tion of Independence itself in defence of the freedom 
and equality of all men; with a brave indifference 
to the memories of the Hartford Convention, and 



144 J. L. M. CUERY, A BIOGRAPHY 

of the outspoken disloyalty of the earlier abolition- 
ists, it charged the Democracy with advocating and 
threatening disunion; and it pronounced for the 
freedom of all men in the Territories, and adopted 
the FederaUst doctrines of Protection and of In- 
ternal Improvements. 

Out of the ruck and turmoil of it all emerged 
darkly the swart face and ominous figure of the negro 
slave. The platform of the Union party evaded the 
vision, and ignored its imminent presence. The 
Douglas democracy, with an illogical and unmain- 
tainable platform, left the negro question like 
Mahomet's coffin, swung midway between heaven 
and earth, while it laid the responsibility which in- 
volved the decision of the negro's fate upon the 
people in the Territories, or upon the people of the 
States indifferently, — or anywhere, indeed, except 
where the Cotton States democrats reasonably 
placed it in their platform, — upon the Constitution 
and the Democratic party. 

Opposed to these three divisions of the voters into 
political parties, stood with unwavering front and 
indomitable courage the young Republicans, upon 
a platform which declared its set and relentless pur- 
pose of prohibiting slavery in the Territories at all 
hazards, and at whatever stake; and whose rank 
and file were stirred to high passion by the flaming 
spirit of abolitionism. 

When the election came in November, every Free 
State, save one, chose Republican electors; while 
most of the Southern States voted for Breckinridge. 
It was the logical and inevitable conclusion. There 
was no time or place for the midway business of Doug- 
lasism, or for the evasions of the ^^Know-Nothings.^' 



THE DAWN OF WAE 145 

Curry, naturally, with his firmly fixed political 
principles and consistent antecedents, went with the 
Breckinridge democracy. He was not of Judge 
Douglas' political stripe; and he hardly admired 
him as a man. 

''He was an able debater," Curry writes of him, "with 
strong native powers, but without wide culture. In his 
tastes and associations he was social and democratic; 
and, as a hon vivant, his intemperance led his associates 
astray." 

In Alabama, ^'as in duty bound and from con- 
viction" Curry entered actively into the Presidential 
canvass. He spoke not only in his own district, 
but in Greensboro, Marion, Selma, and other places. 
In November, following the date of the popular 
election, he addressed the people in the Methodist 
church at Talladega on ''The Perils and Duty of the 
South." In this address, he advised and counselled 
the secession of the State, as the only logical and 
sufficient remedy under the Constitution for existing 
evils. The next day he set out for Washington, in 
order to be present at the opening of Congress. 

"Little else was thought or talked about," he writes 
of this period, "than the threatened secession of the 
slave-holding states. The debates in Congress were 
excited and inflammatory, — menacing, not pacific; parti- 
san, not statesmanlike. Few realized the criticalness of 
the situation, or seemed to forecast the consequences. 
Few at the North credited the intense earnestness of the 
South. When the telegram was received that South 
Carohna had seceded, it met with derisive laughter from 
the RepubHcan side. Oxenstiern's advice to his son, to 
travel and see with how little wisdom the world was 
governed, had a painful verification." 



146 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

On December 13th, Curry objected to the intro- 
duction of a resolution by Morris of lUinois on 'Hhe 
Perpetuity of the Union." His objection was to the 
peril that stood in the imminent breach. Five days 
later, he objected to the introduction of a bill grant- 
ing pensions to soldiers of the War of 1812. This 
objection harked back to first principles. He was 
ever seeking to uphold, both in great things and in 
small, the constitutions of his country, as he con- 
strued them. 

But the perpetuity of the Union was about to be 
called into tremendous question: and other pensions 
than those of the War of 1812 lay in the near shadow 
of coming events. Standing at the parting of the 
ways, he could look back at his career in the National 
House of Representatives with a sense of having 
kept the faith. His period of service in Congress 
extended from December 7, 1857, to January 31, 
1861. During that period the eager young Ala- 
bamian had stood in his high representative office 
for the continuance of slavery as an '' institution '^ 
under the constitution, into which it had been 
written; for State Rights according to his strict 
interpretation of the instrument; for open terri- 
tories, for economy in appropriations and expen- 
ditures, for a reduction of the number of sineciu-es; 
and for the barring of opportunities to what a later 
American pohtical vernacular has given the sinister 
name of ''graft.'' He had stood too for a strict inter- 
pretation of the Constitution at all points; and he 
had opposed protectionism, and advocated a tariff 
fairly adjusted to support a national government, 
honestly and economically administered. 

''Sunset" Cox in his "Three Decades of Federal 



THE DAWN OF WAE 147 

Legislation/' seeking to depict his Congressional 
fellow-members, each with a few light lines, has 
dealt with him and Pugh, one of his colleagues from 
Alabama, together, in the succinct paragraph: 
'Tor subtle ratiocination of the Calhoun pattern, 
there was Pugh of Alabama, who had all the pith 
without the artistic polish of his colleague, Curry"; 
and a later commentator in the Macon, Georgia, 
Telegraph, has said of him: — 

At a period just preceding the War he was justly con- 
sidered the leader of his party in the House of Represen- 
tatives. The records of Congress glow with his brilliant 
and patriotic appeals in behalf of Southern rights and 
institutions. 

On December 20, 1860, to the '^ derisive laugh- 
ter" of the Republican members of the House, South 
Carolina, with grim memories of ''Nullification" and 
of ''the Bloody Proclamation," seceded from the 
Union under what she had always conceived to be 
her constitutional and unsurrendered right. On the 
28th of that month, Curry went to Annapolis as the 
accredited representative of Alabama, to present his 
credentials to the Governor of that State, and to 
consult with him concerning the cooperation of the 
two States with respect to their future welfare. 

The Governor of Maryland was absent from the 
capital at the time of Curry's visit; and the latter 
left a communication in writing, to which his excel- 
lency replied through the newspapers, without giving 
the public an opportunity to read Curry's letter with 
the reply. Nothing came of the little adventure; 
but the story of the episode is preserved in the corre- 
spondence and in Curry's report of his visit to the 



148 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

capital of Maryland, all of which are published in 
the ''Debates" of the Alabama Secession Con- 
vention. 

On January 1, 1861, Curry left Washington, en 
route for Montgomery, to be present at the sessions 
of the Alabama Convention; and at various places 
on the way he made speeches and received ovations 
at the hands of multitudes. On January 7th, the 
Convention assembled, and was opened with prayer 
by the Reverend Basil Manly. Curry was invited 
to a seat on the platform; and three days later he 
and his colleague, Mr. Pugh, in response to a resolu- 
tion of the Convention, submitted to the body a 
communication stating the purposes of the new 
Republican government of Washington as antici- 
pated by the writers. On the following day, January 
11, 1861, the Convention adopted an ordinance of 
secession by a vote of 61 to 39. 

''The intense earnestness of the people" over this 
grave and momentous action of their representatives, 
unappreciated, as Curry states, at the North, was 
illustrated in the capital city of Alabama and 
throughout the State, by the reception which was 
given to the withdrawal of the State from the Union. 
The excitement was intense, and vented itself in the 
roaring of cannon and the ringing of bells; while 
the Convention hall, whose doors were flung open 
upon the announcement of the event, was thronged 
with an enthusiastic and cheering multitude. At 
night the city was brilliantly illuminated, and the 
streets were thronged with a concourse of men, 
women and children. A mass-meeting was held in 
front of Montgomery Hall, and Curry and John B. 
Gordon addressed the multitude. It was the first 



THE DAWN OF WAE 149 

time that the later educator had met the later soldier, 
whose similar patriotism in subsequent years was 
to aid in reconciling and re-uniting the then divided 
people of a common country. 

On January 13th, Curry went to Selma, Alabama, 
and on the next day to Talladega. On the 19th, the 
Convention, still in session, elected him a delegate — 
^' deputy,'^ he calls it — to the Convention of Seceding 
States, which was to meet at Montgomery, on Feb- 
ruary 4th following, for the purpose of organizing a 
provisional government. It was on the way to this 
Convention, — as he pauses in the swift narrative of 
events, made in his later years, to record, — that he 
made another notable acquaintance in the person of 
the distinguished lady, who has left the mark of her 
literary talent upon the story of Southern letters in 
her novels; and a yet more grateful memory in the 
hearts of many, whose lives survive the stormy 
scenes sought to be herein depicted, by her attention 
to the sick and wounded in the Confederate Camps 
of 1861-1865. 

On February 3rd, en route to Montgomery, to attend 
the Congress, on the boat above Selma, I was introduced 
to Miss Augusta Evans, an ardent Confederate, the 
authoress of ''Inez," "Beulah," "Macaria," etc., and 
then began a delightful friendship with a pure and noble 
and gifted woman. 

Long years afterward this friend of the river trip 
to Montgomery, writing to him of his special mis- 
sion to Spain, says : 

Mobile, Jan. 1, 1902. 
My dear Mr. Curry: 

''Forty -one years ago I listened to the speech you de- 
livered in the "Confederacy Congress" at Montgomery 



150 J. L. M. CUERY, A BIOaRAPHY 

when presenting to Howell Cobb an inkstand of Talladega 
marble. How many, who heard you then, survive to-day 
to congratulate you on this latest laurel wreath earned 
by your successful service? Hoping that 1902 comes 
freighted with blessings for you and your wife, and 
soliciting your generous indulgence for this ugly scrawl, 
believe me — as of yore. 

Your sincere, unreconstructed rebel friend, 

Augusta Evans Wilson. '* 

In the meantime, while Curry was in the South, 
the dramatic events which prefaced the crisis were 
taking place in Washington. As the ordinances of 
secession were passed one after another by the 
Southern States, the Senators and Representatives 
from the South were withdrawing from the two 
Houses of the National Congress. 

''The onlookers," says a historian of the period, writ- 
ing from the Northern viewpoint of these tragic circum- 
stances, "thought of Webster and his prayer, that his 
dying eyes as they sought the sun, might not behold it 
shining upon a torn and rent land, and they cursed the 
hour in which they themselves were witnessing the dis- 
solution of the Union." 

It was not merely men that were leaving the 
familiar halls. ''The States were going out! ^^ The 
Senators in person, and the Representatives for the 
most part by written addresses, took their leave. 
One of the former, who became in time the central 
figure of this tremendous political tragedy, said on 
the 21st day of January, 1861, in a farewell address 
to the assembled Senate, the final word announcing 
the attitude of the seceding States: — 

"A great man who now reposes with his fathers," said 
Senator Jefferson Davis of Mississippi, "and who has 



THE DAWN OF WAK 151 

often been arraigned for a want of fealty to the Union, 
advocated the doctrine of NuUification because it pre- 
served the Union. It was because of his deep-seated 
attachment to the Union, — his determination to find 
some remedy for existing ills, short of a severance of the 
ties which bound South Carolina to the other States, — 
that Mr. Calhoun advocated the doctrine of NuUifica- 
tion, which he proclaimed to be peaceful, to be within 
the limits of State power, not to disturb the Union, but 
only to be a means of bringing the agent before the tri- 
bunal of the States for their judgment. 

''Secession belongs to a different class of remedies. It 
is to be justified upon the basis that the States are sov- 
ereign. There was a time when none denied it. I hope 
the time may come again when a better comprehension 
of the theory of our Government, and the inalienable 
rights of the people of the States, will prevent any one 
from denying that each State is a sovereign, and thus 
may reclaim the grants which it has made to any agent 
whomsoever." 

Second in the Senate, and among the first three 
or four of the delegations from the South, the men 
from Alabama answered the call of their sovereign 
States. On January 12th, 1861, L. Q. C. Lamar, 
and the other Mississippi representatives, bade adieu 
to the House in a formal note of fourteen lines; and 
on the day of Mr. Davis' farewell address to the 
Senate, Curry and his colleagues presented to 
Speaker Pennington their communication of with- 
drawal : — 

Washington City, 

January 21, 1861. 

Sir: — Having received information that the State of 
Alabama, through a convention representing her sover- 
eignty, has adopted and ratified an ordinance, by which 



152 J. L. M. CUEEY, A BIOGEAPHY 

she withdraws from the Union of the United States of 
America, and resumes the powers heretofore delegated to 
the Federal Government, it is proper that we should 
communicate the same to you, and through you to the 
House of Representatives, over which you preside, and 
announce our withdrawal from the further dehberations 
of that body. 

The causes which, in the judgment of our State, ren- 
dered such action necessary, we need not relate. It is 
sufficient to say, that duty requires obedience to her 
sovereign will, and that we shall return to our homes, 
sustain her action, and share the fortunes of her people. 
We have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obe- 
dient servants, 

George S. Houston, 
Sydenham Moore, 
David Clopton, 
James L. Pugh, 
J. L. M. Curry, 
James A. Stallworth. 
Hon. William Pennington, 

Speaker of the House of Representatives. 

Of the men who signed this paper, informed with 
a spirit of duty, dignified in its expression, and carry- 
ing between the lines an unconcealed pathos, it may 
be here written that their subsequent careers vin- 
dicated their pure patriotism and lofty purpose. 
Houston became a post-bellum Governor of his State. 
Sydenham Moore, an intimate friend of Curry's, fell 
at Seven Pines with a mortal wound, and died from 
its effects a short time afterwards in Richmond. 
Clopton and Stallworth were honored by the people 
of their State; and James L. Pugh lived to represent 
Alabama in the Senate of a restored and indissoluble 
Union. 



CHAPTER X 



A NEW NATION 



Of the popular vote in the Presidential election of 
November, 1860, the Republican ticket had received 
1,866,352; the Constitutional Union ticket 589,581; 
and the two democratic tickets together, 2,220,920, 
of which 1,375,157 votes had been cast for the ticket 
headed by Douglas, and 845,763 for that headed by 
Breckinridge. A loose-construction party, to use 
the political phraseology of the time, for the first 
time in the history of the Union, had gained control 
of the government, though by a popular minority; 
and when Mr. Lincoln took the oath of office as 
President of the United States on March 4th, 1861, 
seven of the Southern States had already left the 
Union, and others were preparing to follow. Vir- 
ginia had called a convention, which met in Rich- 
mond on the 13th day of February, 1861, a majority 
of whose members were Union men, and opposed to 
the secession of the Commonwealth. On April 14th, 
while the Convention was in session. Fort Sumter, 
after a bombardment of thirty hours by the military 
forces of the seceded States, surrendered; and the 
President of the United States on April 15th issued 
a call for 75,000 volunteers to coerce the States which 
had withdrawn from the Union. On April 17th, in 
consequence of the call for volunteers, Virginia 

153 



154 J. L. M. CUERY, A BIOGRAPHY 

enacted an ordinance of secession, and communi- 
cated its decision to the provisional government of 
the Confederate States at Montgomery, Alabama. 

In the meantime, Curry, as a deputy of his State, 
had been present when the convention of the Seced- 
ing States met at Montgomery, February 4, 1861. 
The body assembled in the Senate Chamber of the 
Capitol. Howell Cobb of Georgia was elected pres- 
ident of the body. Others among the ablest and 
most distinguished members who participated in its 
deliberations were Alexander H. Stephens, Thomas 
Reade Rootes Cobb, Benjamin Hill, Robert Toombs, 
T. J. Withers, Robert W. Barnwell, Charles G. 
Meminger, R. H. Smith, Robert W. Walker, Lewis 
T. Wigfall, and John Hemphill. 

Curry's colleagues, in addition to Messrs. Walker 
and Smith, already mentioned, were Colin J. Mc- 
Crae, John Gill Shorter, William P. Chilton, Stephen 
F. Hale, David P. Lewis, and Thomas Fearn. 

The immediate and most urgent business of the 
Convention was to prepare and adopt a provisional 
constitution, and to organize the government of the 
new nation. A constitution was framed and adopted, 
which in its provisions carefully and explicitly 
guarded by express language all those issues which 
had been the subjects of controversy and conten- 
tion between the loose constructionists and the 
strict constructionists of the old Union. 

Jefferson Davis of Mississippi and Alexander H. 
Stephens of Georgia were respectively elected Pres- 
ident and Vice-president of the Confederate States 
of America; and in the presence of a great multitude 
the President took the oath of office, standing on the 
steps of the portico of the historic building, looking 



A NEW NATION 155 

from its eminence upon the city. The spot where 
Davis stood is still marked by a star, let into the 
pavement of the step, to point to the visitor of later 
generations the birthplace of one of the most tragic 
political Commonwealths in history. 

*'Mr. Davis reached Montgomery on the 17th of Feb- 
ruary," writes Curry in his memoranda, ''and was 
inaugurated on the following day. He stood on the steps 
of the capitol looking west, as he read his Inaugural, and 
when the oath of office was administered, with great 
solemnity and reverence he bowed and kissed a large 
open Bible, which lay before him. The induction of the 
President of the Confederate States was most fitting. 
Then sounded the cannon. The first gun was fired by 
a grand-daughter of President Tyler. She was a pretty 
little girl about twelve years old." 

Doubtless the heart of the Southern President in 
this supreme moment was as sad and anxious as was 
that of the newly elected head of a rent and disor- 
ganized Union beyond the Potomac; but upon it 
lay no burden of doubt as to the justice and right- 
eousness of the cause. 

"We have changed," said Mr. Davis, toward the close 
of his inaugural address, ''the constituent parts, but not 
the system of our government. The Constitution formed 
by our fathers is that of these Confederate States, in their 
exposition of it; and, in the judicial construction it has 
received, we have a light which reveals its true meaning." 

He concluded his address in a lofty strain: — 

"It is joyous," he said, "in the midst of perilous times, 
to look around upon a people united in heart; where one 
purpose of high resolve animates and actuates the whole, 
— where the sacrifices to be made are not weighed in the 



156 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

balance against honor, and right and Uberty and equaUty. 
Obstacles may retard,— they cannot long prevent, — the 
progress of a movement sanctioned by its justice, and 
sustained by a virtuous people. Reverently let us invoke 
the God of our fathers to guide and protect us in our 
efforts to perpetuate the principles, which by this bless- 
ing they were able to vindicate, establish, and transmit 
to their posterity, and with a continuance of this favor 
ever gratefully acknowledged we may hopefully look 
forward to success, to peace, and to prosperity." 

Until Fort Sumter fell, there were many in the 
North, even of those who had been original aboli- 
tionists, who, while bitterly lamenting the occasion, 
were willing to see the Union dissolved. Horace 
Greeley's famous ^'Let our erring sisters go in peace," 
expressed the sentiments of a large number of the 
commercial and academic classes. 

"By March," writes Curry, "a permanent Constitu- 
tion was adopted, and submitted to the separate Con- 
federate States for their ratification. The Congress 
adhered with almost literal fidelity to the Constitution 
of the United States, as not the provisions of that in- 
strument, but the violations, were the gravamen of our 
complaints. The New York Herald, in April, pubhshed 
the full text of our Constitution, and advised the North 
to adopt it as a settlement of the difficulties. 

"Very little difference of opinion was developed in the 
Congress. The most patriotic harmony prevailed, and 
some of the most sagacious members thought there would 
be no war. All deprecated such an event, and hoped, as 
no interference with the United States was proposed, 
that a peaceful adjustment might be secured. The 
troubles, growing out of the garrisoning of forts in 
Charleston harbor, brought on a collision, which occa- 
sioned the four years' bloody tragedy." 



A NEW NATION 157 

After the election of Mr. Lincoln, Curry received 
a letter from Major James Longstreet, then at 
Albuquerque, New Mexico, authorizing him to ten- 
der Longstreet's services to Alabama in the event 
of her secession; and later his services were offered 
to the Confederacy through Curry, who carried the 
letter to Mr. Davis. They were accepted by the 
President, who at once appointed Longstreet a 
Colonel, from which office he rose to be one of the 
great Major Generals of the Confederacy. Raphael 
Semmes, of later '^ Alabama" fame, wrote to Curry 
about the situation; and after resigning his commis- 
sion in the United States Navy, and his position on 
the Light House Board, telegraphed that he was in a 
condition to serve the South. 

Army and navy officers of the United States mili- 
tary and naval organizations, all about the world, 
who were Southerners by^birth or residence, and not 
a few who were neither, but believed that the cause 
of the South was a just cause, hastened to tender 
their swords and services to the Confederacy. 

It is worthy of record here, even at the risk 
of wearisome iteration, that these men did not en- 
gage in this service for the sake of perpetuating 
slavery; but that they were animated by the same 
patriotic sentiment of loyalty to constitutional free- 
dom and to the sovereignty of the individual States 
that impelled the political leaders of the mighty 
movement. Robert E. Lee owned no slaves at the 
time of the War. Fitzhugh Lee never owned a slave. 
J. E. B. Stuart, the great cavalry leader of the Con- 
federacy, owned no slave at the time of the war. 
Joseph E. Johnston never owned a slave. And what 
is true of these men is true of many others, who hav- 



158 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

ing held commissions in the army of the United 
States, had no hesitation as to the direction in 
which lay their paramount allegiance. 

In the month of May, 1861, the Confederate Con- 
gress adjourned, after having first resolved to re- 
assemble in its next session at Richmond, Virginia. 
Curry states that this change was made as an imag- 
ined military necessity; but that in his opinion the 
measure was of very doubtful wisdom. Whatever 
its wisdom or unwisdom, it had the practical effect 
of making Virginia the battleground of the sangui- 
nary struggle that followed, and of visiting upon the 
ancient Commonwealth a physical devastation that 
was suffered in the same measure by no other one 
of the Confederate States. 

On July 20, 1861, the Confederate Congress met 
in Richmond; and on the same day Curry left 
Talladega for the new capital of the Confederacy, 
and arrived in Richmond the following morning. 
Upon his arrival, he learned of the near approach of 
collision between the troops of the two governments. 

''Hearing that a battle was imminent at Manassas," 
he writes, "I took the train ... to hasten to the 
scene of the conflict. The cars were so crowded that the 
whole day hardly sufficed to enable us to reach Manassas. 
The battle had been fought; the victory won; and the 
Federal soldiers, in complete rout, had fled to Washing- 
ton. I rode over the battlefield and along the line of 
retreat, and to me the carnage seemed dreadful. It was 
my first sight of dead men killed in battle. One thing 
impressed me powerfully: the utter disorganization and 
want of discipline in our army. Victory had demoralized 
our troops as much as defeat had the enemy. To my 
inexperienced eye it seemed as if a well-appointed brigade 



A NEW NATION 159 

could have captured our whole army. Everything was in 
confusion, and men and officers seemed to be straggling 
at will.'' 

On the occasion of his visit to the battlefield of 
Manassas, he made his first acquaintance with 
Generals Joseph E. Johnston and P. G. T. Beaure- 
gard. No other opportunity or occasion occurred to 
him to come in contact with the military organiza- 
tions of the Confederacy until the following Septem- 
ber, when upon the adjournment of Congress he 
again visited the army, and went as far as Mason's 
and Munson's Hills, from which he could see the flag 
of the Union floating over the Capitol at Washington. 
He mingled with the men of several Alabama regi- 
ments, w^ho paid him the compliment of more than 
one serenade; and he renewed his acquaintance with 
General Longstreet, with whom he dined by invita- 
tion at Fairfax Court House in a distinguished group 
of officers, including General Johnston. 

On the day following his visit to Manassas, Curry 
returned to Richmond. The provisional Congress 
of the Confederacy had assembled in the capitol of 
the Commonwealth, a beautiful structure of classi- 
cal proportions, designed by Mr. Jefferson upon the 
model of the Maison Carree at Nismes, in France, 
and which had witnessed already the presence of 
many great men of Virginia and the nation, and had 
been the scene of many momentous and historical 
events. Among the new members of Congress was 
a venerable ex-President of the United States, John 
Tyler, during whose administration Texas had been 
admitted to the Union, and whose singular devotion 
to the Union over which he had once presided was 
only equalled by his patriotic loyalty, as a State- 



160 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

rights, strict-constructionist, to the sovereign Com- 
monwealth of Virginia. 

Among the matters of business claiming the at- 
tention of the Congress was the consideration of bills 
that were introduced providing for the admission 
into the Confederacy of the States of Missouri and 
Kentucky. The admission of these States was 
favored in speeches that were made by Tyler, 
Toombs, Wigfall, and other members of prominence, 
and the measures were enacted into law. But 
Curry, with a keen and philosophic discrimination 
which postponed utility to principle, opposed their 
passage with a logic which was as inexorable as it 
might have proved efficient under other and less 
exigent conditions. In his opposition, he vindicated 
the accuracy and exactness of Mr. Calhoun's political 
philosophy; and when some true history of the great 
South Carohna statesman's life and career shall 
come to be written, it may well contain the record 
that of all his disciples there was none who followed 
more exactly and comprehendingly in the path of 
his pohtical footsteps than did J. L. M. Curry. 

''I opposed them ineffectually," he writes, ''and 
almost alone," he adds in another place, ''on the ground 
that their admission would be in utter contravention of 
all the principles underlying our secession and the forma- 
tion of the Confederacy; — that a majority of the people 
of Kentucky and Missouri were not in sympathy with 
us, and that the representatives would have no constit- 
uents. My predictions were too faithfully verified. The 
States were soon in the complete control of the Federal 
army: and those who sat as representatives of those 
States owed their pretence of an election to the votes 
cast by soldiers in our army from those States. With 



A NEW NATION 161 

some honorable exceptions, the representatives were 
worse than useless." 

It was during his sojourn in Richmond as a member 
of the Confederate Congress that he first met the 
young woman, who two years after the war became 
his second wife, and whose association with him, in 
that affectionate and intimate relation, exercised a 
noble influence upon his later more distinguished 
career. 

''I soon went to board," he writes, ''with A. H. Sands, 
esquire, between First and Foushee, on Grace Street, and 
remained with him during my service in Congress. From 
him and his family I received the kindest and most cor- 
dial attentions, for which I shall ever be truly grateful. 
Before going to Mr. Sands', I had boarded fourteen days 
at the Spotswood Hotel. During August, in company 
with Judge Chilton, my colleague, I called at Mr. James 
Thomas, Jr.'s, corner of Second and Grace. The family 
were so gentle, so hospitable, so cordial, that my heart 
was won; and during my service in Congress a week 
seldom passed that I did not take tea with the family. 
Separated from my own family, I as eagerly longed for 
the repetition of my visits to this welcome home, as 
school-girl ever looked forward to vacation and reunion 
with parents." 

During the period of his attendance on Congress, 
Curry made a number of speeches at different 
churches in behalf of colportage among the soldiers 
of the army. He also delivered several lectures, 
one of which was on ''The Wants of the Confed- 
eracy.'^ This was delivered on the 13th of Feb- 
ruary, 1862; and even then was a spacious subject, 
embracing an almost illimitable field. Among those 
who pleased his natural sense of self-esteem by 



162 J. L. M. CUEEY, A BIOGRAPHY 

asking for its publication, he mentions the Hon. 
William C. Rives, the Reverend Moses D. Hoge, 
General Winder, Dr. Brown, and the Hon. John 
Randolph Tucker. But with a wise caution, for a 
public speaker of frequent occasion, he declined the 
flattering request. 

On the 22nd day of February, 1862 (Washing- 
ton's Birthday), the provisional government of the 
Confederate States, established in the preceding 
year at Montgomery, Alabama, had ceased to exist; 
and on that day Jefferson Davis of Mississippi and 
Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia, having been 
unanimously^ chosen President and Vice-president, 
respectively, by the votes of the convention of every 
Southern State, were duly inaugurated for a consti- 
tutional term of six years. The oath of office was 
administered to the President by the Hon. J. D. 
Haly burton, and to Alexander H. Stephens by the 
President of the Confederate States. On the next 
day President Davis sent to the Senate for confir- 
mation a list of Cabinet appointments, as follows: 
Secretary of State, Judah P. Benjamin of Louisiana; 
Secretary of War, George Wythe Randolph of Vir- 
ginia; Secretary of the Navy, Stephen R. Mallory 
of Florida; Secretary of the Treasury, C. G. Mem- 
minger of South Carolina; Postmaster General, Mr. 
Henry of Kentucky; Attorney General, Herschel V. 
Johnson of Georgia. 

The Congress adjourned on April 18th, 1862. 
Curry went home, for a short stay, returning to 
Richmond and his duties on the 17th of August. 

There was little which was eventful in Curry's 
political service or in the political annals of this 
period. The drama of war held the stage and pub- 



A NEW NATION 163 

lie interest centred in the operations of the forces 
in the field. The Seven Days' Battles about Rich- 
mond took place during the summer of 1862; and 
the stout hearted city held her own against mighty 
odds. 

On the 6th of October Curry left Richmond for 
Talladega, and reached home on the 12th. During 
his attendance upon the sessions of Congress in 
Richmond; Mrs. Curry had remained in Alabama, 
taking an active part in various patriotic charities. 
She was at the head of a sewing circle, which was 
accustomed to meet at the old Curry homestead at 
Kelly's Springs, for the purpose of making clothes 
for the soldiers. Although Mrs. Curry was a frail 
and delicate woman, she was possessed of an in- 
domitable energy and perseverance, and of great 
prudence and tact in the management of others. 
By her industry and liberality she had already ac- 
complished a large amount of work of this kind, 
for which she had been accorded great praise 
throughout the country. In many instances the 
private soldier at the front left no bread-winner at 
home to care for the family; and the majority of 
the men in the Confederate armies were not slave- 
owners. So it happened that it was not uncommon 
for the soldiers' families to find themselves in desti- 
tution and want, even in the earlier days of the War, 
although contributions for their relief were frequent 
and liberal. Those who had gave willingly, how- 
ever, to those who had not; and at one time Curry 
himself turned over to the Probate Court of Talla- 
dega County, without thought of compensation, for 
the aid of soldiers' families, one thousand bushels 
of corn. It was a large and generous gift; and yet 



164 J. L. M. CUERY, A BIOGEAPHY 

so general were donations of this character from 
those who were able to make them, that this large 
contribution attracted no special attention; and, 
Curry adds in recording it, it may be "less grati- 
tude." 

Returning to Richmond, he writes of the Congress 
then in session: — 

The legislation amounted to very little. Mr. Davis 
gave to Congress very little information beyond what 
was published in the newspapers. We were apparently 
expected to put into statutes what he deemed best for 
the interests of the Confederacy. Possibly, probably, 
it was best not to communicate military secrets to Con- 
gress, for very little occurred in either House that did 
not promptly find its way into the newspapers. 

We had some excellent men in the House. Mr. Wil- 
liam C. Rives was a ripe scholar, an experienced states- 
man, a high-toned gentleman. Garnett of Virginia was 
a man of abundant possibilities. He died, and I made 
one of the addresses on the occasion. Staples and Pres- 
ton were eloquent men. Henry S. Foote of Tennessee 
was sui generis, — whether partially demented, or merely 
disaffected to the South, it was difficult to decide. 

The impossibility of appreciating our currency was 
every day more clearly demonstrated, and the rapid 
depreciation made increased issue necessary; and the 
two counter-currents were running violently. A propo- 
sition to make our notes a legal tender had strong and 
zealous advocates. I opposed this in an elaborate speech, 
which was much praised, and which I think had the effect 
of killing the measure. I made two speeches on different 
aspects of the currency question. 

Frequently I presided in the House, and when the 
Speaker, Mr. Bocock, was absent, I was elected Speaker 
pro tern. If I had been a member of the next Congress, I 
should probably have been chosen to preside, as very 



A NEW NATION 165 

many of the members had very decidedly expressed their 
preference in that direction. 

Contemporary and later testimony acclaims 
Curry's merits and abilities as a presiding officer. 
He was a student of parliamentary law, and pos- 
sessed the qualities of alert perception, keen intelli- 
gence, disinterested honesty, and swift and firm 
decision. All these had been sharpened and inten- 
sified by his large experience in both religious and 
political bodies and assemblages; and if the proba- 
bility which he suggests had ever become a reality, 
there can be no reason to doubt that he would have 
so discharged the duties of Speaker of the House of 
Representatives as to add another laurel to those 
that he had already won, or to those which he later 
wore. 

Curry's memorabilia are strangely silent on de- 
tails, impressions and personal touches concerning 
the Confederate Congress which we would be very 
grateful for in building up a picture of that unique 
governmental body. The Constitution of the Con- 
federacy seemed to him an instrument of great wis- 
dom, and an everlasting refutation of the charges 
which have been brought against the framers, as 
conspirators erecting a great slavery oligarchy. Its 
tenure of office provisions, its initiation, in a modi- 
fied form, of the British custom of allowing the 
President representation on the floor of the two 
houses through his constitutional advisers, espe- 
cially appealed to him. In speaking of the Con- 
federate instrument he later declared: — 

Every possible infringement upon popular liberty, or 
upon State rights, every oppressive or sectional use of 



166 J. L. M. CUEEY, A BIOGEAPHY 

the taxing power, was carefully guarded against, and 
civil service reform was made easy and practicable. 
Stubborn and corrupting controversies about tariffs, post- 
office, improvement of rivers and harbors, subsidies, 
extra pay, were avoided. The taxing power was placed 
under salutary restrictions. Responsibility was more 
clearly fixed. Money in the treasury was protected 
against purchasable majorities and wicked combinations. 
Adequate powers for a frugal and just administration 
were granted to the General Government. The States 
maintained their autonomy, and were not reduced to 
petty corporations, or counties, or dependencies. 

The study of the Confederate Constitution would be 
useful at present, as there never was a time when the 
need of restrictions and guarantees against irresponsible 
power was more urgent. The public mind has been 
schooled against any assertion of State rights or of con- 
stitutional limitations, and taught to look with aversion 
and ridicule upon any serious attempt to set up the 
ancient landmarks. The abeyance of State authority, 
reliance in actions and opinions upon Federal protection 
and aid, the vast accumulation of power and influence at 
Washington, the supposed necessary supremacy of the 
Central Government, have caused a wide departure from 
the theory and principles of the fathers. 

He was constant in praise of the learning, the 
ability and the legislative wisdom of the individuals 
composing the Congress operating under this admi- 
rable constitution. And yet his records suggest a 
dullness in its proceedings, a certain futility in its 
debates, a certain lack of a proper forum for pure 
civic ability. The inference is very clear that 
though the Confederate Congress was nobly organ- 
ized to carry on a settled and placid government, 
the knowledge that success in war could alone guar- 



A NEW NATION 167 

antee its existence tended inevitably to give it 
second place in the public consideration, and to 
rob its proceedings of that lofty dignity that belongs 
of right to parliaments of established nations. The 
soul and spirit of a brave, struggling people hovered 
over the field of battle, and not over the chamber of 
debate and mere intellectual combat. 



CHAPTER XI 

THE EBBING OF THE TIDE 

On May 4, 1863, Curry reached home on his re- 
turn from Richmond, and announced himself a 
candidate for re-election to the Confederate Con- 
gress. His district comprised the four counties of 
Calhoun, Randolph, Talladega and Shelby. For a 
while after his announcement he had no opposition. 
Then a candidate appeared in the person of Marcus 
Cruikshanks, whom Curry speaks of as ''a, very 
worthy man.^' Curry addressed to him a communi- 
cation, suggesting that they canvass the district 
together, — a proposition which Mr. Cruikshanks 
declined. The latter's supporters adopted the dan- 
gerous and effective policy of a modern ''still hunt.'' 
They engaged in no open arguments, and con- 
ducted their political program with a secrecy which 
proved to be invincible. ''Silence is the true elo- 
quence of power," said a great French statesman, 
"because it admits of no reply." Curry was unable 
to answer the insidious attacks of his political 
enemies, or to withstand the logic of events which 
were now proving potent arguments against the 
doctrines of secession and of State rights. At the 
election in August, 1863, Curry was defeated, his 
opponent carrying three out of the four counties of 
the district, and leaving him only a small majority 
in the county of Calhoun. 

The arguments of word and of event, which had 
proved so overwhelming in their results, were not 

168 



THE EBBING OF THE TIDE 169 

very far to seek when the smoke of the poUtical 
battle cleared away. 

The district, as constituted, had been originally 
opposed to secession. At the time of the election 
Vicksburg had fallen before the victorious forces of 
Grant; and the reverses to the Confederate arms 
in Pennsylvania and in Tennessee had alike served 
to dispirit a people who had not been sanguine of 
success from the beginning. A secret peace organi- 
zation had sprung up in the district. Deserters 
from the army were multiplying in numbers, and 
sowing the seeds of discontent among those with 
whom they came in contact. The volunteers had 
long since gone to the front, many of them never to 
return; and a conscription, which had aheady 
begun, of du-e necessity, to take the old men and 
the young alike, ^^ robbing both the cradle and the 
grave,'' was now arousing a spirit of ill-concealed 
hostility. '^ General Hard Times" had assumed 
command in the Confederacy. The currency be- 
came every day of less value. A Confederate paper 
dollar, that had been worth a dollar and ten cents 
in the August of two years before, had now depre- 
ciated to such an extent that it took from twelve 
to thirteen such dollars in August, 1863, to equal 
in value a dollar of gold. Taxes were high, and the 
tax-gatherer of the government was estabhshmg 
granaries, in which were stored the government's 
exacted fractions and tithes of the meagre crops 
raised by the old men, and women and children, 
and the negro slaves. A barrel of flour in March, 
1863, cost in the Confederacy twenty-five Confed- 
erate dollars. In February of that year, the money 
value of a day's rations for one hundred soldiers, 



170 J. L. M. CUEEY, A BIOGEAPHY 

which in the first year of the war had been nine 
dollars, was at market prices one hundred and 
twenty- three. Salt, which had advanced in the 
first year of the struggle from ten to eighteen dol- 
lars a sack, was still going up in price with a steadi- 
ness which the salt ^' licks" and springs of Tennes- 
see, the Indian Territory and Southwest Virginia, 
seemed powerless to counteract. A cordon of block- 
ading Federal vessels shut out the markets of the 
world from the great staple, which so short a time 
before had been endowed with a royal appellation, 
and ^'King Cotton" was dethroned. The blockade- 
runners, from Nassau in the Bahamas to Wilming- 
ton in North Carohna, brought in, under the stress 
of darkness and ever imminent danger, scanty sup- 
plies of medicines and surgical necessaries; but 
there was little help from the outside world for the 
environed South. 

Out of this pressure of poverty and distress were 
generated the demagogue and the malcontent, who 
availed themselves, with sinister purpose and suc- 
cessful accomphshment, of the depressing circum- 
stances that existed to inflame the prejudices of the 
weak-hearted and the poverty-stricken against se- 
cession and secessionists. 

Curry's whole political career, his open and con- 
sistent advocacy of political doctrines, which were 
now denounced as the causes and origin of the 
war, afforded a shining target for attack. He had 
been an arch-secessionist; and he was still in favor 
of a vigorous prosecution of the struggle. It was 
not alone upon the ignorant and the credulously 
disaffected that delusive promises of an early peace 
had their telling and depressing effect. 



THE EBBING OF THE TIDE 171 

His defeat for re-election brought him many ex- 
pressions of sorrow and regret from all parts of the 
Confederacy; and the news was received with down- 
cast hearts, and with universal sympathy throughout 
the South, among those whom he denominates 'Hhe 
true and faithful." It was no time for idleness or re- 
pining, and Curry immediately turned from statesman- 
ship, in which he delighted, to war, which he abhorred. 

On the 22nd of September, 1863, he went out with 
a company of ''Home Guards," to aid in an impend- 
ing battle; but the great fight at Chickamauga had 
occurred before they reached the army. 

"I went over the battle-field," he writes, "before the 
Federal dead were buried, and then visited the army 
occupying Missionary Ridge, Lookout Mountain, and the 
Valley between. From Lookout Mountain one of the 
grandest views in the world is presented. The two 
armies, — the Federals were in Chattanooga, — lay at the 
beholder's feet." 

On October 10, 1863, he reached home from the 
seat of war. In the early part of November he 
visited Perry county, and shortly thereafter spent 
a few days at Montgomery, where the legislature of 
the State was in session. Although he makes no 
mention of it in his memorahilia, his friends and ad- 
mirers appear at this time to have planned his elec- 
tion to the Confederate States Senate, as is indicated 
by a letter found among his papers. 

Talladega, Ala., 

Nov. 13, 1863. 
Hon. Thomas B. Cooper, 

My dear Sir: — In the first place excuse (you would 

have done that without the asking, if paper is as scarce 

in your office as in mine,) this blank-book paper. In the 



172 J. L. M. CUERY, A BIOGRAPHY 

second place, you will excuse an old friend, for venturing 
to intercede with you for help, if he needs it, for one 
whom he ardently desires to be promoted by the Legis- 
lature. I mean the Hon. J. L. M. Curry, who is a can- 
didate for the Confederate States Senate. I know not 
your predilections on that subject; nor do I know who 
are the most prominent competitors of Mr. Curry. I 
know this much, however, that I have nothing to say 
in disparagement of any of them. But I feel very anx- 
ious to have Mr. Curry in the Senate, because I know 
him well, and know him to be a pure man, as well as a 
man of brilliant talents and extraordinary working qual- 
ities. I know of no man in the State or Confederacy of 
more promising qualities for usefulness in Congress; and 
there is none of purer morals, or more unbending integ- 
rity. Besides, I think the time has come when West 
Alabama should be known to the country. Heretofore 
the idea has been, that no man, however talented, — how- 
ever sound in political sentiment, — however pure in 
character, — could have his claims to represent the State 
in the National Senate considered, unless he could have 
the geographical recommendation of a residence in North 
Alabama or South Alabama. East and West Alabama 
have been ignored. But at the extra session you took 
from West Alabama her patriotic Jemison. If you will 
now secure for East Alabama her just but long-deferred 
claims to a name and a place in the State by electing our 
young and gifted Curry, I think the work of reform, in 
this respect, will be in the right direction and at the 
right time. 

I shall regard it as a personal favor, and what is more, 
a public good, if you will throw your influence in favor 
of Mr. Curry. 
We are all well. 

Your friend truly, 

Geo. S. Waldon. 



THE EBBING OF THE TIDE 173 

But the efforts of Curry's advocates were un- 
availing. Whether his '^ geographical residence/' so 
earnestly urged by his friend, Waldon, as a ground 
of his election, put him at a disadvantage; whether 
the same potent causes which had compassed his 
defeat for the House of Representatives at the hands 
of a popular constituency four months before, were 
again at work among the members of the legislature; 
whether his claims were not vigorously and aggres- 
sively pressed; or whether his failure was the result 
of a combination of these causes, is now beyond 
determination. A stronger probability than any of 
these is that the competition of some of the ablest 
and very foremost men of the State and of the South 
was too great to be overcome; for the man chosen 
by the Alabama legislature for Confederate States 
Senator at this juncture was Richard W. Walker, 
who was one of the most conspicuous statesmen and 
leaders of the young republic. 

On November 30, 1863, Curry set out for Rich- 
mond to serve out the unexpired period of his final 
term in the House of Representatives. He was 
nearly a week in reaching the Capitol. Of his sub- 
sequent service in this session he has preserved the 
following record: — 

During the session I presided much, and made two 
speeches, — one in favor of negotiating, even with Benja- 
min F. Butler, for the exchange of prisoners; and the 
other on offering commercial privileges to some Euro- 
pean nation to recognize us, and intervene with arms. 

In the early part of February (1864), a joint committee 
headed by Semmes of the Senate and Clapp of the 
House, was appointed to prepare an address to the peo- 
ple of the Confederate States. Senator Semmes was to 



174 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

draft so much of the address as related to Congressional 
legislation; but he failed to perform the task. To my- 
self the remainder was assigned. The Committee ap- 
proved my address. I read it to the House amid much 
applause; and so enthusiastic was the approbation, that 
every member of both Houses signed it. Several thou- 
sand copies were ordered to be published, for circulation 
among the people and in the army. When I joined the 
army a few months afterwards, the officers, knowing my 
authorship of the address, gave me most cordial and 
flattering receptions. 

Before Congress adjourned, I purchased cavalry equip- 
ments, intending to join the 53rd Alabama Cavalry 
regiment, in which my brother Thomas was a captain. 
Gen. J. E. B. Stuart had previously written a letter to 
President Davis, asking my appointment as Judge of the 
military court for his corps. Gen. Longstreet also ten- 
dered me a position on his staff. 

Congress adjourned, and Curry's term of service 
expired on February 18, 1864, with the clouds thick- 
ening about the doomed Confederacy. He went 
South to complete his arrangements for entering the 
army, moved by an eager spirit of aiding the cause 
to which he had devoted himself in whatever way 
his service might prove available. He reached 
Talladega on the 24th; and on the 15th of March, 
at the invitation of General Leonidas Polk, the 
Bishop-soldier of the Confederacy, he went to De- 
mopolis, in the western part of the State, where at 
a grand review of the ragged army of the South, he 
had the pleasure of addressing several acres of 
soldiers. 

Before the expiration of the sixty days' furlough 
which he had obtained UDon the adjournment of 
Congress, he received an unsolicited appointment 



I 



THE EBBING OF THE TIDE 175 

from President Davis to the position of Commissioner 
under the Habeas Corpus Act, to serve with General 
Joseph E. Johnston's army, but not under him. 

"My duties were judicial," he states, " — to investigate 
charges of disloyalty and treason preferred against civil- 
ians; and hence, by some persons, I am called 'Judge/ 

"I went to Dalton, Georgia, in April, 1864; and hav- 
ing little to do in connection with my office, I spent the 
most of my time in visiting the various camps, and 
familiarizing myself with military movements. Many 
brigades were addressed by me; and my services in this 
line were much sought after. Gen. Johnston had a grand 
review, to infuse fresh confidence into his men. The 
display of banners and muskets and mimic warfare was 
very magnificent. 

''A gracious revival pervaded the army, while in camp. 
Meetings were held every night. Chaplains and other 
preachers held religious services. I heard Gen. M. P. 
Lowry, a Baptist minister, in command of a Mississippi 
brigade, and an officer much trusted by Gen. Johnston, 
quite often. Hundreds of soldiers would gather in the 
open air to hear the simple gospel; and the converts were 
very numerous. 

''The Georgia Baptist Convention met this spring in 
Atlanta; and I attended and made an address on army 
colportage. Here I saw for the first time Governor 
Joseph E. Brown, who was a member of the Convention.'' 

Curry was not yet an ordained minister; but his 
notes are full of references to religious matters. He 
has left an account of religion in the Southern army 
among the soldiers, in his ^^ Civil History of the Con- 
federate States"; and no one can read the frequent 
entries which he has made in his journals and mem- 
orahilia without a deep sense of his piety and of his 
lofty spiritual character. The religious spirit seems 



176 J. L. M. CUEEY, A BIOGRAPHY 

from the beginning to have dominated his Hfe; and, 
over and above the figure of the pohtician, states- 
man, orator, and educator, shines about him with 
an ever increasing lustre the halo of an humble serv- 
ant of Christ. 

When in May, 1864, General Johnston began his 
retreat towards Atlanta, he requested Curry to serve 
on his staff as special aide. Inasmuch as the latter's 
regular official duties were suspended by the stress 
and exigency of military operations, he consented to 
accept this office; and thus became attached to 
General Johnston's staff, of which he remained a 
member until his detail elsewhere in the following 
July. 

/ Curry's associations with General Johnston be- 
came close and intimate; and he came, from obser- 
vation and study, to form a very high estimate of 
the character and ability of the great Confederate 
general, who as a tactician, disciplinarian, and a 
master of logistics by the impartial testimony of 
military criticism, was without a superior in the 
armies of the Confederacy. 

''Gen. Johnston," he writes of the retreat before Sher- 
man, ''conducted this campaign with unsurpassed skill 
and strategy, thwarting the enemy's plans and designs, 
inflicting heavy losses upon him, losing not over five 
thousand of his own men, whose enthusiastic confi- 
dence he preserved to the end. In this retreat, such 
was the forethought of the commander, that while 
preserving and improving the morale of his men, the 
Commissary was managed with consummate energy and 
ability. . . . 

"At Cartersville a battle-order was read, proper dis- 
position of troops was made for attacking the enemy, — 



THE EBBING OF THE TIDE 177 

and with shouts and strong hopes our boys reversed 
their march. Hood, on the right, was to attack, and to 
be supported by Polk in the centre and Hardee on the 
left. By some fatal misinformation, Hood, instead of 
attacking, fell back to his lines of the morning, reporting 
that he was flanked. His blunder and error defeated the 
plan. Johnston was excited and mad at the frustration 
of a plan devised and prepared for some days before. 
Still he arranged his men for meeting the enemy on the 
next day. In the morning, his purpose was to attack 
Sherman's army in detail, knowing they were divided 
and separated by travelling on two roads. At night-fall 
Gen. Johnston, with several of us, rode along the line; 
and Gen. Johnston remarked on the rapidity and tact 
with which our boys had thrown up temporary breast- 
works. As we returned to headquarters, the General 
told us to get a good rest, as we should have plenty of 
work on to-morrow. An hour or so after retiring (Col. 
E. J. Harvie, an Inspector-general and myself tented 
together), we were summoned to Gen. Johnston's tent. 
At a council. Hood said that he could not hold his posi- 
tion; Polk was doubtful; Hardee wanted to fight. Gen. 
Johnston reluctantly, and ever since regretfully, yielded 
to two of his corps commanders, and gave orders to fall 
back across the river. I was sent to Gen. Wheeler's 
camp, some distance on the right, to summon him to 
Gen. Johnston, to receive instructions about protecting 
our rear with his cavalry." 

Curry's estimate of Johnston has value as afford- 
ing an intimate view of a man who did not wear his 
heart on his sleeve: 

''Frequently I rode with General Johnston at night, 
and he would, when in a talking mood, tell me of Marl- 
borough's and Wellington's and Napoleon's campaigns, 
which seemed as familiar to him as the alphabet. When 



178 J. L. M. CUEEY, A BIOGEAPHY 

he had travelled as far as he intended, he would dis- 
mount, wrap himself in a blanket, and be asleep in five 
minutes. He was singularly reticent in reference to his 
plans, — kept his own counsels, but had marvellous facil- 
ity in finding out the movements and plans of the enemy. 
The cavalry was utilized and made to subserve its legiti- 
mate office of acting as eyes and ears for the infantry 
and artillery. '^ 

After the war was ended, and the events of that 
momentous struggle had become matters of history, 
General Johnston, in a conversation with Curry, 
said to him that he would not have asked any- 
thing better of Sherman than what he attempted 
with Hood. But Hood failed him in the ultimate 
issue; and the event, which Johnston planned 
and wished, was not to be. Johnston and Sher- 
man, as great military tacticians, were antago- 
nists worthy each of the other. They were pitted 
against each other in many indecisive contests, where 
some extraneous circumstance, beyond the control 
of either, frustrated their respective plans; and it 
seems that Death, the great conqueror, at the very 
end, preserved the impartial balance between them. 
'^By an irony of fate,^' writes Curry in his later years, 
''Gen. Johnston, as pall-bearer at the funeral of 
Gen. Sherman, on a wet and cold day, contracted a 
cold which resulted in his death. '^ 

On the 9th of July, 1864, Johnston reached his 
fortifications at Atlanta in safety. During the prog- 
ress of the ensuing siege, Curry went across the 
country on horseback to Talladega. On the 17th 
of July, during his absence, Johnston was relieved 
of the command of the army of the defense, and 
Hood was put in his place. Soon after Curry 



THE EBBING OF THE TIDE 179 

reached Atlanta, upon his return from Talladega, 
his office as Commissioner under the Habeas Corpus 
Act expired by limitation; and at the request of 
General Joseph Wheeler, he joined that officer as 
special aide, in an expedition to travel in the rear of 
Sherman's army, and to cut his communications. 
It was a congenial duty to the diminutive Confed- 
erate General, whose soul was bigger than his body, 
and who will be remembered in history, not only for 
his heroic devotion to the cause of the Confederacy, 
but no less for his loyalty to a reunited country, 
which made him one of the most picturesque figures 
in the Spanish-American emeute of 1898. 

Curry writes of this episode with Wheeler: — 

We first struck the road at Dalton, and captured the 
place after a brisk little engagement, taking about 100 
prisoners. . . . Moving up the railroad, and tearing 
up rails, we encountered some colored troops, the first I 
had seen. We marched to Cleveland, hoping to cross 
the Tennessee River; but the late heavy rains had 
swelled it, so as to be not fordable. We passed through 
Athens, and some stores were '^ gutted." On this expedi- 
tion we were forbidden to encumber horses with any 
surplus clothing; and we ate just what we ''picked up," 
en route. For a portion of the time our principal food 
was green corn. Gen. Wheeler was compelled to make a 
wide detour to cross the swollen river, which he finally 
accomplished, with a little resistance east of Knoxville. 
While tearing up the railroad at McMillan's Depot, we 
had a little fight and dispersed the enemy. As the rail- 
road between Chattanooga and Nashville was the line 
of communication to be cut, the General struck across 
the country. 

He requested me to cross the Clinch River at Clinton, 
to the right of his line of march, and get what informa- 



180 J. L. M. CUERY, A BIOGRAPHY 

tion I could. With a few men I hurried on, and came 
to a country mill, with a large "overshot" wheel, situa- 
ted on a beautiful stream of water, and embowered in a 
dense forest. Two Federal soldiers were captured, and a 
middle-aged woman, bare-footed, in homespun frock, 
apparently the owner of the mill, came to the door and 
accosted me. The door was about ten feet from the 
ground, and a broad slab was the only means of entrance 
and exit. Being of Union sympathies, and furious be- 
cause of the capture of the men, she poured upon my 
head, vehemently and volubly, a torrent of oaths, the 
most vulgar, blasphemous and horrid that I ever heard 
fall from human lips. Threatening me with vengeance 
from a brigade of soldiers, which she affirmed was 
nearby, she began to descend the pathway from the 
mill, without ceasing her vocabulary of opprobrious and 
disgusting epithets. Riding my horse across the slab, I 
informed her that she must remain where she was. This 
infuriated her afresh, and drew upon me another volley, 
not less offensive and wicked than she had given previ- 
ously, of her abundant imprecations. Persisting in the 
avowal of her purpose, I ordered one of my men to tie 
her, and put her on one of the captured horses, and carry 
her to headquarters. Quieted and convinced by my 
calm purpose, she withdrew to the mill, and we pursued 
our journey. . . . 

By the way, the rural population of East Tennessee 
was unrefined, ignorant, vicious and disloyal to the 
Confederacy. 

Curry, continuing his account of his military ex- 
periences of this period, writes: — 

We crossed the railroad south of Nashville; but our 
circuitous journeying and long delay had defeated the 
project of breaking up communications. Tearing up the 
road a little, we marched towards Franklin, where we 



THE EBBING OF THE TIDE 181 

had quite a severe engagement, and General Kelly, an 
accomplished young officer, was mortally wounded. I 
was in a few paces of him when he was shot. Under a 
flag of truce General Wheeler requested the kind atten- 
tions of Colonel Brownlow, in command of the opposing 
troops, to his friend and comrade, and it is a proper 
tribute to Colonel Brownlow to say that the Confederate 
officer, during his few remaining days, received the kind- 
ness that a chivalrous adversary delights to render. 

At a little town south of Franklin, we had another 
engagement; and there I saw women on the streets, in 
the midst of the fray, cheering our men. The tyranny of 
Federal occupation drove them nearly to despair. Trav- 
elling south, the corps forded the Tennessee River, a 
dangerous enterprise, below Decatur, Alabama; and while 
General Wheeler halted to rest his command and await 
orders and information from Gen. Hood, who had been 
*' flanked" out of Atlanta, and whipped, I made a ''flying 
trip" to Talladega. 

On the 6th of October, 1864, Curry started for 
North Alabama to discharge his duties as Judge 
Advocate with a military court, composed of Gen- 
eral Leroy Pope Walker of Alabama, Colonel Dowd 
of Mississippi, Colonel House of Tennessee, and 
another officer. 

''We reached Courtland, General Roddy's headquar- 
ters," he writes, "on the 17th. Reporting to General 
Roddy, who greatly desired my presence and assistance, 
on account of the disturbed state of affairs in North 
Alabama, I was appointed his aide pro tempore. There 
was much disloyalty in that portion of the State, and the 
facihty of intercourse with the Federal army made cau- 
tious dealing very necessary." 

On October 30 Generals Hood and Beauregard 
reached Courtland, en route for Nashville. On 



182 J. L. M. CUERY, A BIOGRAPHY 

November 2 General Roddy and his staff arrived 
at Tuscumbia, where Hood was then encamped, and 
was slowly getting ready for his proposed invasion 
of Tennessee. General Beauregard had already 
departed. Curry continues: — 

The difference betwixt his (Hood's) and General John- 
ston's handling of troops was most manifest. General 
Hood seemed to be at a loss what to do; and his equip- 
ments and appointments, for which no blame attaches 
to him, were most inadequate. 

General Roddy, with his brigade of cavalry, was 
ordered west, to make observations and to prevent 
any movement from Memphis. By means of a 
pontoon bridge. General Hood and his army crossed 
the Tennessee River to Florence; and on Sunday, 
November 21, started northwards for Tennessee. 
Meanwhile Roddy's brigade, to which Curry was 
attached, remained at luka and Corinth. About 
this time Colonel Josiah Patterson, commanding the 
Fifth Alabama regiment, was assigned to other 
duties; and Curry was transferred to the command 
of the regiment with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. 
The circumstances of this promotion of one, who 
was scarcely more than a civilian in experience, were 
recalled in a letter written in 1897, by Colonel Pat- 
terson : — 

Memphis, Tenn., Oct. 22, 1897. 
Dr. J. L. M. Curry, 

My dear Sir: Soon after your retirement from the 
Congress of the Confederate States I met you at General 
Wheeler's headquarters, when you told me you had 
entered the army. About that time the Lt. Colonel of 
my Regiment, the 5th Alabama Cavalry, was appointed 
Colonel of the 10th Alabama Cavalry, thereby making a 



THE EBBING OF THE TIDE 183 

vacancy in my Regiment. The officers of my Regiment, 
without exception, waived right to promotion, and you 
were by the unanimous request of the officers of the 
Regiment, promoted to the rank of Lt. Colonel. Subse- 
quently I, with the rank of Colonel, commanded the 
brigade to which the 5th Alabama Cavalry was attached; 
and you, with the rank of Lt. Colonel, commanded that 
Regiment to the close of the war. 

Very truly yours, 

JosiAH Patterson. 

Curry assumed the duties of his new office at 
Corinth on the 29th; and at dress-parade he made 
the regiment an address, which was received with 
the applause that was the usual accompaniment of 
his oratory and his personal popularity. That his 
rapid advancement as a soldier was not due to 
political or other influence than that commanded 
by his military worth, was later attested by high 
authority. In a speech on the floor of the House 
of Representatives of the United States, March 9, 
1898, General Joseph Wheeler asserted that Curry 
had earned his rank by bravery in battle. 

With the zeal and industry and adaptability which 
characterized him in every station in life, he set him- 
self to work at once to become proficient in the art 
of war. 

"I soon mastered Wheeler's Tactics," he writes, "and 
drilled the Regiment every day, Sundays excepted, when 
not engaged in active service. The Regiment was un- 
disciplined and badly armed, and not homogeneous. 
While my relations with the Regiment were pleasant 
and I had the entire confidence of officers and men, it 
was a sore trial to put and keep in 'fightmg trim 
men who were generally not well officered, and who were 



184 J. L. M. CUREY, A BIOGRAPHY 

partially demoralized by serving in the immediate vicin- 
ity of their homes and families. It is simple justice, 
however, to say that I never saw more gallantry and 
courage than were frequently displayed by some of the 
officers and men. 

"In this connection, I can do no better than stop and 
pay a just tribute to General Roddy. He has been much 
misrepresented, and since the war his conduct has not 
been free from censure. I never witnessed in him any 
other than a jealous and watchful purpose to serve his 
country to the best of his ability. He had a difficult 
command, requiring much tact and patience to manage, 
and a wide extent of territory to guard; and of his per- 
sonal courage there can be no question." 

On December 24 Curry and his command 
reached Rogersville in Northern Alabama, near 
the Tennessee line. Here he was ordered back by 
General Hood, who had only a few days before 
fought the disastrous battles of Franklin and Nash- 
ville. Curry accordingly fell back on the 25th, 
moving in a southwestward direction to Florence. 
It was a cold, wet day; and there was scarcely a 
mouthful of food for either men or horses. ^^I have 
no pleasant associations," he declares, ^^of that 
Christmas." Thousands of soldiers were retreating 
from Tennessee in confusion and disorder; and the 
roads were so cut up by wagons and artillery as to 
be almost impassable. 

On December 29th, 1864, Curry's regiment 
marched to Pond Spring, east of Courtland; and 
on the next day, with about one hundred men, he 
fought a regiment of Federal cavalry, and was 
driven back to Courtland. 

"Infantry and cavalry," he states, "were completely 



THE EBBING OF THE TIDE 185 

demoralized, regarding our defeat as accomplished and 
resistance as hopeless. With such men as I could or- 
ganize I had several skirmishes with Yankees, — very 
nearly escaping capture, as the enemy charged within a 
few paces and fired in very uncomfortable proximity. 
I should have surrendered, but that I dreaded the im- 
prisonment and the separation from my family.'' 

From the first to the tenth of January, 1865, 
Curry and the enemy played at hide and seek in 
Northern Alabama, through Franklin, Lawrence 
and Morgan counties. One night he enjoyed the 
luxury of a bed in Newburg, at the house of Mr. 
McCaughey, the father of his adjutant. About the 
twelfth of the month Colonel Patterson rejoined 
the regiment, near Sim's Mill in Morgan County; 
and Curry's labors and anxieties as commanding 
ofiicer were relieved. 

On the 20th of the month Curry learned of the 
extreme illness of his wife, and started home, in 
company with two gentlemen of the name of Orr, 
who lived near Danville, Alabama. He reached 
home on the 23rd, where he remained till the 31st. 
On that date, with a sense of duty impelling him to 
return to the front, he left, and never saw his wife 
again. Reaching the camp at Sim's Mill on Feb- 
ruary 3, he was once more put in command of his 
regiment, a portion of which was employed in 
guarding a long stretch of the river. 

On March 16, 1865, he was assigned command 
in North Alabama, having under him the Fifth 
Alabama Cavalry and Stewart's Battalion. At that 
time a cavalry corps, under the Federal General 
Wilson, was preparing for a raid through Alabama. 
By courier-line Curry reported nearly every day to 



186 J. L. M. CUERY, A BIOGRAPHY 

General Wirt Adams, at Montevallo. On the 25th, 
in obedience to orders, he moved southwards. At 
Elyton, on the afternoon of the 28th, the Federals 
came into the town just as Curry's force had passed. 
A half hour later he would have been intercepted. 
On the 30th Colonel Patterson resumed command; 
and Curry, asking for and obtaining a detail, con- 
cealed himself near the road, in order to get infor- 
mation concerning the strength of the enemy. He 
counted nearly four thousand, and reported to 
General Forrest, who was advancing to meet the 
foe. Wilson's whole command numbered nearly 
ten thousand men. Curry, being cut off by the 
delay in counting, had to make a wide detoiu", and 
was unable to join the main body of the Confed- 
erates for two days. Overtaking General Forrest's 
command, and rejoining his own on April 1, he was 
ordered to protect the rear of the Confederate column. 

"Deploying what men I had," he writes, '*I skirmished 
with the enemy through Plantersville, slowly falling back 
to give the wagons time to get out of the way. While 
resisting the attack, a ball, with a heavy thump, struck 
and entered my haversack, perforating my coat, breaking 
a hair-brush, and making sixty holes in a New York 
Tribune, which I had been carrying for two weeks with- 
out an opportunity to open and read. This paper, now 
in the Confederate Museum at Richmond, undoubtedly 
saved my life. When Greeley was a candidate for the 
Presidency, I sent him by a friend a jocular message, 
that if elected he could not take the oath of office, as he 
had certainly given 'aid and comfort' to his country's 
enemy." 

On Sunday, April 2, 1865, Curry was the last 
man to enter the breastworks at Selma, where he 



THE EBBING OF THE TIDE 187 

found General Forrest's troops posted, awaiting the 
Federal attack. In a few minutes the enemy ap- 
peared in front; and, after reconnoissance, attacked 
in force, quite to Curry's left, where Armstrong's 
brigade was stationed. The firing was very heavy 
for twenty or thirty minutes; then the Federals 
charged the breastworks, and driving the Confed- 
erates pell-mell, followed the fugitives into Selma, 
killing and capturing the larger part of them. The 
Confederate command, hemmed in by the Alabama 
and Cahawba Rivers, was in desperate straits, from 
which it might escape only with great difficulty. 

Curry, who makes record of the episode as includ- 
ing 'Hhe most terrible night of his life," says: — 

I held my position, not violently assailed, until the 
enemy had gotten betwixt me and the town. Seeing 
everything in confusion, and our army routed, my men 
became uncontrollable, and sought safety. With a squad 
adhering to me, I crossed the fortifications, as to go into 
Selma was capture or death. Avoiding the road, on 
which were Federal troops, I soon found myself in the 
woods, and in a swamp. May I be spared from such 
another night ! The Federals fired the government build- 
ings, the foundries and naval works and magazines, 
which amid the awful explosions ignited and consumed 
the business portion of the city. The din was fearful. 
The rattle of musketry, the music of brass bands, the 
explosion of shells, the shrieks of women, made a second 
Tophet. The burning town made an illumination which 
extended for several miles. Amid the hurrahing of vic- 
tors, and the tramping of pursuers and pursued, I walked 
nearly the whole night. The next day, avoiding the 
scouts of the cavalry, I found my way to Mr. Mims', and 
spent the night. 

The next day, with two men, I lay in the woods. At 



188 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

night, as the country was full of cavalry, we travelled; 
and just at day I paid a negro five dollars in Confederate 
money, — all of any kind I had, — to put us across Ca- 
hawba River in a canoe. A young horse, which Mr. 
Mims loaned me, swam by the boat. On the west bank 
of the river we were safe. My two companions soon left 
me, and I rode to Marion. On the street I met Judge 
Porter King, who invited me to his house, and fed myself 
and horse. I found in the town General Forrest, who 
had effected his escape from Selma; and I promptly re- 
ported to him for duty. 

Curry spent a period of several days, extending 
from the 8th to the 14th of April, at Greensboro, 
Alabama, in collecting what remained of his scat- 
tered command. On the 14th he received orders to 
muster his forces in the vicinity of Montevallo or 
Elyton, and to guard the prairie country against 
any approach of the enemy from the direction of 
the Tennessee River. The orders were from For- 
rest, and were characteristic; for they contained 
the further instruction that Curry was to report to 
General Dick Taylor at Meridian, to General Adams 
at Montgomery, or to Forrest himself at Gaines- 
ville, or wherever he might establish his headquar- 
ters. Colonel Stewart was to report to Curry; and 
Curry, in addition to '^guarding the prairie-country" 
with his scanty and disorganized troops, was to 
establish a courier-line from Greensboro to Talla- 
dega, — a distance of over a hundred miles. 

Everything was in great confusion and turmoil; 
but in the midst of it, officers and soldiers alike 
were in happy ignorance that General Lee had 
already surrendered at Appomattox on the 9th of 
the month, to an overwhelming enemy, what was 



THE EBBING OF THE TIDE 189 

left of the Army of Northern Virginia, — a ragged 
and starved and footsore remnant of ''that incom- 
parable array of bright bayonets and tattered 
uniforms," whose fidelity and courage continued 
unfailing to the end. 

On the morning of April 17, while trying to get 
his wagons and men across the flush and flooded 
Cahawba River at Centreville, Curry received by 
private messenger the intelligence that his wife had 
died on April 8, nine days before; and that her 
death had been hastened by a current and appar- 
ently authentic report that her husband had been 
killed at the battle of Selma. It was a tragic end- 
ing to a union that had been a very happy one. 

''She was a pure, noble Christian woman, and a de- 
voted wife," is the tribute which he pays to her memory. 
*'For eighteen years our lives had run peacefully and 
happily together. No woman sympathized more heartily 
with the Confederacy, or labored more self-denyingly for 
the soldiers and their families. My wife was a member 
of the Presbyterian Church." 

Stricken sorely in his affections, and with the 
cause, that he held close at heart, in apparently 
desperate emergency, and in reality already lost, 
he started homeward on a journey that enabled his 
official duty to coincide with his desire to be with 
his family. 

"Turning over my little command to Colonel Stewart," 
he writes, "I proceeded to reconnoitre and locate the 
proposed line of couriers, and to look after my motherless 
children, — Susie Lamar and Manly Bowie. I reached 
Talladega and my home on the 18th, the day of Johnston's 
surrender to Sherman. As I neared my home, my slaves 



190 J. L. M. CUEEY, A BIOGRAPHY 

ran up the road to greet me, with sympathy at my loss 
and gladness at my return." 

On April 21 a brigade of Federal cavalry passed 
through Talladega. 

''Gathering a few soldiers," says Curry, '*! counted 
them, and then watched their movements, to report. 
While in a lane, I captured a Federal soldier, and took 
his mule and arms. As I was protecting my prisoner 
from the thoughtless insults of the men who were with 
me, I was very near being shot. Unnoticed, another 
Federal soldier had approached within thirty yards of 
me. When I discovered him he was taking deliberate 
aim at me. Gathering my bridle and spurring my horse, 
I charged upon him, and fired my pistol. He fled and I 
was only too glad of an opportunity to escape, as several 
of his companions were in sight." 

A Federal garrison, under General Crysler of 
New York, occupied Talladega on May 13th. To 
this command, Curry, having learned of Lee's sur- 
render at Appomattox and of Johnston's in North 
Carolina, and realizing that the great struggle 
was at an end, reported and surrendered; and 
was paroled. By order of General Canby, he was 
arrested on the 30th of the same month; but was 
again discharged on his personal parole the same 
day. 

''The arrest," he states, "grew out of a 'cock and bull 
story' in the New York Tribune, that I had favored the 
assassination of Lincoln and the cruel treatment of 
Federal prisoners. General Crysler treated me uniformly 
with consideration and kindness; but he was accused, 
and probably not wrongfully, of levying 'blackmail' on 
citizens, and taking cotton for his own use. His quarter- 
master took corn and forage and meat from me without 



THE EBBING OF THE TIDE 191 

the slightest compensation, and a Michigan regiment 
robbed me of three mules in open daylight. Of course 
the rascals charged 'Uncle Sam' for these purchases." 

Talladega County was now under martial law; 
and the people were so crushed that even a corporal 
could commit almost any depredation upon persons 
or property with entire impunity. ''The Freed- 
man's Bureau was instituted," says Curry, ''and 
some of the fanatical or corrupt agents sought to 
make masters support their former slaves, or divide 
with them their property. Generally, the negroes 
behaved well. Mine, with one exception, remained 
on the place as usual. I stayed at home quietly on 
my farm with my two children." 

In September, 1865, a bill of information was 
filed against Curry in the Federal District Court at 
Montgomery, for the confiscation of his property, 
on the grounds that he had been engaged in armed 
rebellion against the United States; that he had 
subscribed largely to the Confederate Cotton Loan; 
that he had furnished money, provisions, clothing, 
and other materials for the use of persons engaged 
in the "rebeUion," and that he had used and circu- 
lated the paper currency and bonds of the State of 
Alabama and of the Confederacy, said notes and 
bonds having been issued for the purpose of waging 
war against the United States Government. 

''This information from the District Attorney," says 
Curry, "was never served on me by the Marshal, but 
was returned as executed; and I was thus at the mercy 
of as despicable and unprincipled a set of adventurers 
and robbers as ever, under official sanction, plundered a 
helpless people. I employed Judge William R. Chilton 
to look after my interests; and he compromised with the 



192 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

officials, 'hungry as dogs and merciless as wolves/ by 
the payment of $250, the receipt for which lying before 
me, is the evidence of the robbery." 

In October, Curry went to Washington to obtain 
a pardon, travelling by way of Chattanooga, Nash- 
ville, Louisville and Cincinnati. East Tennessee 
was not considered even at that time altogether 
safe for persons who had been in active sympathy 
with the Confederate cause; and hence Curry's 
wide detour to reach the capitol. 

**0n the 22nd," he writes, ''I arrived at the capitol 
city, Congress being in session. On the 23rd, unattended 
by any person, I saw the Attorney General and President 
Johnson. The latter received me courteously and kindly. 
To my application for pardon, he made no immediate 
reply; but talked freely about the condition of the coun- 
try and the state of feeling at the South. 

''On my rising to leave, he expressed a wish for a fur- 
ther conversation, and told me to call next morning at 
the State Department, and the pardon would be ready 
for me. In Congress I had had a pleasant but not inti- 
mate acquaintance with the President, when he was a 
Senator from Tennessee. I was, of course, prompt in 
calling on the 24th at the State Department, then in the 
upper portion of the Treasury Building; and after mak- 
ing and signing the required oath, the pardon, with the 
signatures of the President and of 'W. Hunter, acting 
Secretary of State,' attested by the Great Seal, was 
handed to me." 

As pertinent to his subsequent relations with the 
Federal Government, in whose service he later occu- 
pied a distinguished position, it may be stated here 
that it was not until February 27, 1877, that the 
United States Senate passed the bill under which 



THE EBBING OF THE TIDE 193 

Curry's political disabilities were removed. The 
signing of this bill on March 2 was one of the last 
official acts of President Grant. 

On the same day that he received his pardon, he 
started South for Richmond; and travelling thence 
he reached his home in Talladega on the last day of 
the month. 



CHAPTER XII 



PEACE AND SERVICE 



Before the War between the States politics had 
absorbed the time and attention of most thoughtful 
men in Alabama and the lower South, but it was 
politics of a high kind. The war-smitten people of 
that region were now to grapple for their very social 
existence with another and inconceivably degraded 
form of politics. For six years, during the fateful 
period of Reconstruction, fuller of bitterness and 
suffering and degradation than the fewer years of 
battle and defeat, they experienced poverty and 
detraction and woe under the vicious rule of the 
carpet-bagger, the ^'scalawag" and the newly- 
enfranchised negro. Of the evil domination of 
the State by the creatures of the Freedman's Bureau, 
and of its looting by legislatures composed of negroes 
and their more offensive and reckless white allies, 
space in this narrative does not admit the telling. 
The awful mistake of the reconstruction theory, 
now universally admitted, and the eternal infamy 
of the reconstruction period are written in indelible 
letters upon the life of the South. Its influences 
must be inferred rather than discussed in these pages. 

In November of 1865, Curry, with his heart set 
upon the cause of religion as the one eternal thing to 
which a man of soul could repair amid the overthrow 
of all old standards, attended the Baptist State Con- 

194 



PEACE AND SERVICE 195 

vention at Marion, Alabama, and was elected its 
presiding officer. During the session of the con- 
vention, the trustees of Howard College, then located 
at Marion, a small college set up by the Baptist 
people, elected him President of that institution. 
At this time, as may naturally be supposed, the 
finances of the school were at a low ebb and on an 
uncertain basis. But there were those who realized, 
as defeated peoples have done in many ages, that 
the resuscitation of their impoverished and prostrate 
country lay in the hope of educating the unvan- 
quished boys and girls, with a new world awaiting 
their activities. Out of the abundance of their poverty 
these people subscribed with generous unselfishness 
to the guarantee of the President's salary, which was 
fixed at $5,000 in currency, or $3,500 in gold. 

Curry accepted the Presidency of the college, and 
removed in December, 1865, to Marion, taking with 
him his son. Manly, then a boy eight or nine years 
of age, whose sister, Susie, a young girl of fifteen, 
had in the preceding October been entered as a pupil 
in the Judson Female Institute, in the same town. 

Curry writes of his work in connection with the 
college : — 

Most of my time, after a little teaching in moral and 
mental science, and political economy, was given to travel 
through the States, and public addresses in behalf of the 
college and general education. . . . During the year 
I visited Selma, Montgomery, Tuskegee, Jacksonville, 
Talladega, Mobile, Gainesville, and Mississippi. 

On the 28th of January, 1866, he was ordained to 
the gospel ministry; and, as a fitting accompaniment 
to the statement of so serious and important an 



196 J. L. M. CUERY, A BIOGRAPHY 

event in his life, his own account of his rehgious 
history and experience may be here appropriately 
set down: — 

''In early life/' he writes, "my parents were not Chris- 
tians, although moral, upright and regular attendants on 
religious worship. The only denominations in the lower 
part of Lincoln County were Methodists and Baptists. 
I remember to have heard George F. Pierce, the Bishop, 
when he was a young man. The first missionary sermon 
I ever heard was at Double Branch meeting-house, by 
Dr. C. Mallory. It was in the week, drew a large audi- 
ence, and produced a profound impression. The Baptist 
preachers I remember were Adams, a colored man, who 
preached acceptably to white people, Taylor, Juriah 
Harris, and John L. West. The last was often at my 
father's. My father's house was always a welcome and 
hospitable home for all preachers. 

''There were no Sunday Schools near me when I was 
young. In fact, I never was a member of a Sunday 
school until I was married. In early youth I had no 
distinctive religious impressions or convictions. My sen- 
sibilities and emotions were sometimes awakened, but 
were physical excitements and had no religious basis. 
All my life I was outwardly moral. I never uttered an 
oath, and never gambled, although I learned to play 
cards when I was eight or nine years old. When at 
college, I attended church, more because it was a college 
regulation and to see the girls than for any other pur- 
pose. I used to hear Dr. Hoyt, Drs. Curry (now — 1877 — 
of New York), Means, Smith, Longstreet, Chambliss, 
Albert Williams, Branham, &c. Of the Bible, I was 
stupidly ignorant. During college, I had, as most boys 
have at some period of their lives, skeptical notions; 
but I was afraid of them, and deliberately burned, with- 
out reading, Paine's 'Age of Reason,' which a class-mate 
gave to me. 



PEACE AND SERVICE 197 

"When at the Law School, I heard Theodore Parker, 
Dr. Walker, Dr. Kirk, and Baron Stow; but had no 
convictions of sin, nor desire for salvation. 

''After my return from the Mexican War, there was a 
protracted meeting at Kelly's Springs, and my father was 
baptized. His baptism made a deep impression on me. 
During the meeting I was admitted into the church, and 
was baptized by Elder Samuel Henderson. ... I 
have never had any rapturous experiences, any overpow- 
ering views of my sinfulness of forgiveness; and to this 
day, with humiliation I record it, I have never had any 
special satisfaction in partaking of the Lord's Supper. 
I know the depravity of my heart, the need of regenera- 
tion, my utter inability to change my own heart and 
character. I beUeve the Bible, the atonement of Christ, 
its all sufficiency, and rely simply on Christ's work and 
grace for salvation. I find most contentment in working 
for my Master, although I am sure there is no merito- 
riousness, as procuring salvation, in any human right- 
eousness. I have often wished and prayed for the expe- 
riences that some Christians have; but they have been 
denied me, or possibly, by unbelief I have denied them 
to myself. 

''In 1847, I attended the Alabama Baptist State Con- 
vention at Greensboro, Alabama, and was on the Com- 
mittee on Education. In 1848, and for several successive 
years, I was a delegate to Coosa River Association, and was 
the Clerk of the body, writing many of the reports, four of 
which bear my name. In 1856 I was elected Moderator 
and so continued when present. In 1856 the East Ala- 
bama Baptist Convention was organized, and I was 
elected President for two or three sessions. In 1865, 
and for a few sessions thereafter, I was elected President 
of the Alabama Baptist State Convention. 

"During these various years, I taught in Sunday 
Schools, made missionary and other religious addresses, 
conducted prayer-meetings, and sometimes delivered 



198 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

what are called exhortations. I may have been called 
an active lay-member. Once, by my Church, I was 
chosen deacon and declined. During the war, when in 
command of my regiment, I sometimes, in the absence of 
the chaplain, or in default of one, addressed my men on 
practical religion. 

''In the summer of 1865, at Refuge Church, in Talla- 
dega County, Rev. William McCain, the pastor, induced 
me to preach my first regular sermon. In August and 
September I aided J. J. D. Renfroe, my pastor, and Dr. 
Spalding, in a meeting in Talladega town. A spectacle, 
novel and interesting, was that of a Confederate soldier 
and a Federal soldier, who walked into the water, hand 
in hand. In September, I aided the same brethren and 
Brother 0. Welch, the pastor, in a meeting at Talladega 
(now Alpine) church. In December, I assisted Dr. W. 
H. Mcintosh in a meeting at Marion, Alabama. All these 
meetings were highly successful. 

''I have been invited (I write this on 22 March, 1877) 
to pastorates in Selma, Montgomery, Mobile, Atlanta, 
Augusta, Wilmington, Raleigh, New Orleans, Memphis, 
St. Louis, San Francisco, Louisville, Norfolk, Richmond, 
Baltimore, New York, Boston and Brooklyn; but I have 
had no inclination or conviction that it was my duty to 
become exclusively a preacher. At times I love to preach, 
and I am profoundly convinced that sacerdotal ideas 
connected with the ministry, or preaching, have been 
productive of untold evil.'' 

The intimacy, simplicity and candor of this state- 
ment not only reveal the pre-occupation of serious 
minded men of that age in religious matters, but 
constitute of themselves a sufficient warranty that 
Curry's discharge of the duties of his most high and 
sacred office was conscientious and earnest. Al- 
though he declined invitation after invitation of the 



PEACE AND SERVICE 199 

most flattering character to accept a regular pastor- 
ate, he continued nevertheless to do a great deal of 
preaching. One hundred and nineteen sermons were 
delivered by him during the first year of his ministry, 
— an extraordinary intellectual feat, apart from the 
devotion which it illustrates; while, in addition, he 
made numerous addresses at prayer-meetings, Sun- 
day Schools, associations, conventions and mass- 
meetings. He visited Richmond, Baltimore and 
Washington, and spoke on education and missions. 
He had beaten the sword of the soldier into the 
reaping-hook of a spiritual harvest, wherein he 
labored with an industry and persistence which vin- 
dicated his assertion that he '4oved to preach." 
The influence of the preacher upon the life of the 
South is a story not yet adequately told. It may 
be doubted if the world has quite appreciated the 
singular religious quality of the Southern people and 
their leaders both in their military struggle and in 
the period of grim endurance after the conflict. 
Great revivals frequently swept the armies and 
preachers turned caissons into pulpits. From the 
ministry such officers as Pendleton, Lowry, Evans, 
Capers, Mell, Shoup, Dabney, Harrison, Willis, 
Peterkin, Polk, Smith, and Chapman entered the 
army and attained great distinction, and great 
preachers like Early, Quintard, Marvin, Pierce, 
Doggett, Palmer, the Hoges, Jeter, Burrows, the 
Rylands, Broadus, Minnegerode, Duncan, Father 
Ryan, shared with the military leaders the admira- 
tion and esteem of the soldiers in the ranks. The 
spectacle of Jackson and Gordon holding torches, 
in order that the Chaplain might read the Scrip- 
tures to the fierce veterans of the eastern armies. 



200 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

recalls Cromwell and his Ironsides in another age of 
deep feeling and high purpose. Near the beginning 
of the year 1866 Curry was invited to become 
a co-secretary of the American Baptist Home 
Mission Society, — one of the most distinguished 
and important offices of his church; in the fol- 
lowing June he was asked to assume the pastorate 
of the Selma Baptist Church at a salary of $4,000; 
and at other times during the year he received calls 
from the Coliseum Baptist Church, in New Orleans, 
the Second Baptist Church in Richmond, and the 
Franklin Square Baptist Church in Baltimore. In 
November, at the Alabama Baptist State Conven- 
tion, he was re-elected President of that body. 

This is the record of a busy man, honorably, use- 
fully and hopefully employed, and of a tough and 
vital nature, steeped in moral purpose, that could 
thus turn without complaint or cynicism from the 
excitements and ambitions of war and statesman- 
ship to quieter and humbler, but essentially greater, 
projects of rebuilding and social service. No morbid 
despair of life, no idle regret for lost and now un- 
availing causes, no surrender to the adversities and 
calamities which had befallen him, almost before 
his prime, possessed the soul of Curry. Undaunted 
and undismayed, he buckled on the whole armor of 
faith, and in his works honored God and aided his 
fellow-man with a will that defeat could not check 
nor humiliation daunt. Nor were his energies and 
efforts confined to the assistance and amelioration 
of those who with himself had been cast down in 
the wreck of a great struggle. He turned himself 
in helpful sympathy to the ignorant and humble 
race, out of whose seeming triumph came to be 



PEACE AND SERVICE 201 

wrought an Ilium of woes; and whose new-found 
friends had laid upon unprepared shoulders a double 
burden of freedom and of enfranchisement. With 
the tenderness and affection for the black man which 
the typical Southern slaveholder preserved to the 
end, and which the typical Southern slave rewarded 
with a fidelity and devotion that is unparalleled in 
the history of the world, — a tenderness which the 
alien will never comprehend, and a devotion which 
will never cease to astonish the outsider, — Curry 
was, from the moment of the fall of the Confederacy, 
occupied in mind and heart with the probable future 
of these people. On May 15th, 1866, he held a con- 
ference at Marion with Messrs. Mcintosh and 
Raymond, the pastors of the local Baptist and 
Presbyterian Churches, with reference to the educa- 
tion of the freedmen of the town. They agreed 
upon a town-meeting, to be held on the 17th of the 
month; and on that day a preliminary gathering 
took place, whose object was to devise ways and 
means towards this desired end. ' Shortly afterwards, 
another meeting was held, at which Curry, supported 
by the two ministers already mentioned, and by 
ex-Governor Andrew B. Moore, prepared and intro- 
duced resolutions favoring the education of the 
colored people by the white people of the South. It 
was a wise and prescient act upon his part; and in 
dealing with the proposition he took an advanced 
position beyond that of most of his Southern con- 
temporaries, many of whom were paralyzed with 
fear and wonder at the sudden injection of a great 
mass of ignorance ^4nto the belly of the constitu- 
tion." But Curry met the exigency of the situation 
with the judgment, the courage, the faith and the 



202 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

energy that had characterized his earher career; 
and for it, in the end, he received his rich reward. 

In this year of 1866, he began to keep regularly 
a record or diary; and the little leather-bound 
pocket-books contain many entries that bring the 
past days of a notable but disjointed and despairing 
period and a noble career vividly before the reader's 
eyes. Among many other details of this critical 
year after the war, when despair and hope alter- 
nately swayed the Southern balances, we find him 
writing cheerfully and without repining. Not a few 
of these entries are quite insignificant, alone and 
in themselves; but they go together to show the 
equal temper of his heart and mind, his quick in- 
terest in the life about him, his zest for work, and 
may thus serve to illustrate his character and con- 
duct : — 

Saturday, February 3 (Entry made at Meridian, Miss.) 
Carpet-sack taken from me by mistake, with clothes and 
all my sermons. Left for Mobile at 5 p. m. 

Tuesday, February 6. Called on Miss Augusta Evans. 

Saturday, February 10. Called with Miss Augusta Evans 
on Mrs. Chandron, who translated Joseph II, — a most 
accomplished and pleasant woman. 

Monday, February 12. Spent Monday night at Mr. 
Evans', — the father of Miss Augusta J. Evans, author of 
Inez, Beulah, Macaria and St. Elmo. 

Saturday, March 31. Took tea at General Lawler's 
with General Willis Bocock and Prof. A. J. Battle. 

Tuesday, April 3. At 3.30 p. m. delivered a "little'' 
lecture to the students of Howard. 

Wednesday, April 11. (Entry made at Tuskegee, Ala.) 
Dined with Mr. McDonald. Met Mrs. Covington (nee 
Miss Bussy), who knew my father and mother before 
marriage, and my grandfather and mother, and great- 



PEACE AND SERVICE 203 

grandmother, who would never ride, but was a great 
pedestrian. My mother, when a girl, was cheerful and 
lively. 

Monday, May 14. Informed of a contemplated duel, 
and mediation requested. 

Wednesday, May 16. Officiated for the first time in 
marrying a couple, Marion M. Burch of Kentucky and 
Ella L. Curry. Spent the night at Jabez Curry's. 

Monday, May 21. Left Marion at 6 a. m. Reached 
Selma at 9.20 a. m. Preached at night and baptized two 
young boys. This was my first administration of the 
ordinance. 

Friday, June 1. Duel between M. P. Kennon and 
Capt. Frank Lumpkin. Two shots. No damage. Ad- 
justment. 

Friday, August 31. Invitation to Presidency of Rich- 
mond College. 

Wednesday, September 12. Reached Montgomery at 
9 A. M. Called with Judge Chilton, at 12 m., on Governor 
Patton, just returned from Chicago, — the "inauguration" 
of the Douglas monument. The Governor hopeful as to 
political affairs; Chief Justice Walker despondent. 

Tuesday, October 9. Commenced teaching in College. 
Recitations in Moral and Intellectual Philosophy and 
Rhetoric. 

Sunday, November 18. (Entry made in Richmond.) 
Preached at Second Baptist Church at 11 a. m. 

Assisted in communion service at First Baptist Church 
at 4 p. M., and talked to converts. 

Dr. Steel and Messrs. Farrer, Courtney and Ellyson, a 
committee of the Second Baptist Church, waited on me 
with a request to accept pastorate. 

Preached at night in First Baptist Church to a large 
congregation. Drs. Stiles, Ryland and Burrows on the 
stand. 

A busy day, surely! 



204 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

More than ten years later Curry wrote again, 
under date of that same full day, in one of the little 
brown leather-backed diaries: — 

On the 18th of November, happy day, I was accepted 
by Mary W. Thomas. I have had occasion, every day 
since, to thank God for this great goodness. I can recall 
the very spot where my proposal was acceded to. 

On Tuesday, January 8, 1867, he made the follow- 
ing entry in his diary: — 

Weighed to-day 157 pounds; — more than I ever weighed 
before. 

On 28th February, 1867, in his official capacity of 
President of Howard College, he entered into cor- 
respondence with Mr. Robert C. Winthrop, with 
reference to the Peabody donation, a gift of three 
millions of dollars by which Mr. George Peabody of 
Massachusetts established what became known as 
the Peabody Education Fund. This correspondence 
was the beginning of a later very close personal and 
official relationship between the two men, the details 
of which are to be found in subsequent chapters of 
this narrative. 

In March of this year he was instructed by the 
trustees of his college, who armed him at the same 
time with a resolution of their confidence, to visit 
Virginia and Baltimore, for the purpose of securing 
some part, if possible, of the Peabody Fund for 
their own institution. Accordingly he set out for 
Richmond about the middle of the month, spending 
some days on the way, and remaining in Virginia 
only a short time. He appears to have been sick 
during a portion of this trip; and he did not reach 



PEACE AND SEEVICE 205 

Baltimore as he had contemplated. At the end of 
the first week in April he was again at Marion; and 
there is no record in his jom-nals and notes of any 
fruitful results of the journey. 

On June 17, 1867, he set out for another trip to 
Virginia, which had in view a different object than 
procuring aid for Howard College from the Peabody 
Fund. He travelled tranquilly, as one with a serene 
and untroubled mind, who having earned some days 
of leisure, proposed to enjoy them. He stopped at 
various places on his way northward. Among others, 
he was at Charlottesville on the 21st. 

'^I visited the University in the afternoon," he 
wrote in his diary; in which he always alludes to 
Jefferson's great educational institution at Char- 
lottesville as ^Hhe University," apparently taking 
it for granted, as did most Southerners, and all Vir- 
ginians, that there could be no difficulty in recog- 
nizing its identity. While in Charlottesville he 
visited the grave of Jefferson, in the graveyard on 
the mountain side; and Monticello, where the ^'sen- 
tinel over the rights of men" had spent his last 
years in his home upon the summit of the Little 
Mountain. 

On the next day after his visit to Jefferson's 
house and burial-place, he reached Richmond. 

The entries in the little brown-backed books had 
during the preceding months contained frequent 
mention of ^'M. W. T.", and of a correspondence in 
which the owner of those initials was a participant; 
and on the 18th of the preceding November, — 
''happy day!" — it showed the record of his engage- 
ment. So that the reader, who has followed these 
pages, may reasonably have surmised ere this, that 



206 J. L. M. CUKRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

Curry was visiting Richmond to be present at his 
own wedding. 

On June 25, 1867, he and Miss Mary W. 
Thomas were married. She was the daughter of 
Mr. James Thomas, a prominent business man of 
Richmond, whom Curry, when a Confederate Con- 
gressman, had met, as he records, with her parents 
and numerous sisters, under a tree on the lawn of 
Mr. Thomas' residence, upon a certain summer's 
day, when she was "sl sweet, beautiful girl of seven- 
teen." The marriage ceremony was performed at 
8.30 P.M., as he punctiliously relates, in the First 
Baptist Church, with Rev. William D. Thomas and 
Dr. J. L. Burrows officiating. A large and brilliant 
assemblage witnessed the solemn ceremony; and 
the bridegroom writes that besides the officiating 
ministers, there were present on the platform, as 
interested spectators. Doctors Jeter, Ryland, T. G. 
Jones and Shaver, and Reverend Messrs. Grimsby, 
Hume, and Morgan of England. 

''From that day," says Curry in 1877, ''our lives have 
flowed happily together, like two streams whose waters 
are indissolubly blended. Not a harsh word has ever 
passed the lips of either, nor an unkind thought been 
harbored for a moment in either heart. Now, after ten 
years of union, I can bless God for such a gift, and truly 
say that earth contains not a wiser, purer, nobler, better 
woman." 

Surely no wife ever won a finer tribute than that! 

An hour or two after their marriage Curry and his 
wife left Richmond for New York; and thence, on 
Saturday, June 29, they set sail for Europe. In the 
party were William D. Thomas, Dr. J. M. Williams 
of Baltimore, Professor Huntingdon, Rev. Thomas 



PEACE AND SERVICE 207 

Hume, Jr., of Portsmouth, Dr. G. W. Samson and 
his family, and Messrs. Wheeler, Johnson and Farn- 
ham, all of whom appear to have beerf friends or 
acquaintances of Curry's, and whose presence he 
notes in his diary. 

Their trip abroad, which was not so common an 
experience as it is to-day, covered a period of four 
months, and included England, Scotland, Belgium, 
Germany, Switzerland, Italy and France. 

On July 13, runs the diary, they were at West- 
minster Palace, Westminster Abbey, and the British 
Museum; on the next day, Sunday, they heard with 
interest a sermon from Spurgeon. In Italy, on the 
24th, they visited Pompeii, and climbed Vesuvius; 
at Florence, on August 1, they traversed the galleries 
of the Uffizi and Pitti palaces, and dwelt with unac- 
customed eyes upon the glories of an ancient and 
unexcelled art; and there they visited the American 
sculptor, Hiram Powers, in his studio. On August 
23, still following the now beaten track of the later 
tourist, they returned to Paris, where they remained 
until October 5, in attendance upon the Exposition 
and visiting the various places in its vicinity of his- 
torical or artistic interest. Here, in Paris, after a 
lapse of years, Curry makes record that he heard 
Patti sing again, with a charm that had lost nothing 
of its delight since he had heard her, ten years ear- 
lier, in Washington. Setting their faces homeward, 
by way of England, the Currys once more heard 
Spurgeon in his great London Tabernacle; and had 
the pleasure of making his personal acquaintance. 

The travellers reached New York October 28, 
whence they went straight to Richmond, where they 
tarried only a few days, and arrived at Marion early 



208 J. L. M. CUEEY, A BIOGBAPHY 

in November. The next month he attended the 
State Baptist Convention at Mobile, and was again 
and for the third time elected its President. 

His ^4ove of preaching" meanwhile continued a 
potent influence with him. Indeed, '^ love of preach- 
ing " but mildly expresses the deepest impulse of 
the man's nature, which was to teach and move his 
fellows. During 1867, in spite of his wanderings and 
various distractions, he preached forty sermons, — one 
of which was in Paris, and another in Edinburgh; 
and delivered forty-two addresses and lectures. 

On July 10, while he was off the coast of Ireland, 
in his trip abroad, he was honored with the degree 
of Doctor of Laws by Mercer University, Georgia, 
of which he made record in his notes, with many 
exclamation points. , 

Mercer University, Georgia, conferred on me, to-day, 
the Degree of Doctor of Laws!!!! 

The later months of 1867 and the earlier ones of 
1868 were busily occupied by Curry, who in addi- 
tion to the duties of his collegiate office, was engaged 
in travelling here and there, and preaching and 
making addresses before rehgious and educational 
gatherings. At Talladega, on January 13, yielding 
to the earnest persuasion of his old friends and for- 
mer constituents, he made a speech in opposition to 
the adoption of the Reconstruction State Constitu- 
tion. The constitution was legally defeated by the 
terms of the Congressional enabling act, which 
required that a majority of the registered vote 
should be cast; but the Congress, with ruthless 
disregard of its own act, admitted Alabama into 
the Union under an unadopted reconstruction con- 



PEACE AND SERVICE 209 

stitution; and with it, put in authority a State 
government, of whom the Lieutenant-Governor, 
Applegate of Ohio, the Secretary of State, Miller 
of Maine, the Auditor, Reynolds of Maine, and the 
Commissioner of Revenue, Keiffer of Ohio, were all 
officials of the Freedman's Bureau. In the county, 
in which the State capitol was located, the Recon- 
structionists nominated a ticket, which was a fair 
example of others in counties where the Freedman's 
Bureau most flourished. Their candidates for -the 
legislature were a citizen of Ohio, an Austrian, and 
three negroes; and those for the county offices of 
Probate Judge, Clerk of the Circuit Court and 
Sheriff were all Northerners. 

Curry wrote of his speech against the Black and 
Tan Constitution of Alabama, in 1877, that it was 
''the only political speech he had made since the 
War"; but he had made up his mind to get away 
from the ocean of political degradation and misrule 
that surrounded him, whose current of iniquity he 
was powerless to stem. On April 21, 1868, within 
three months after the election, Curry resigned the 
Presidency of Howard College. On the 27th, at the 
urgent request of several of his friends, he withdrew 
his resignation, provisionally; but, in fact, he never 
acted in an official capacity for the institution after- 
wards. An unusual sense of profound dishearten- 
ment seems to have come upon him in the contem- 
plation of his surroundings. For once his buoyant 
spirit lacked resiliency. ''The country was too 
bankrupt," he wrote, "and the political outlook too 
discouraging, to make a continuance of efforts for 
endowment desirable." 

Long after his State had resumed her position of 



210 J. L. M. CUEEY, A BIOGRAPHY 

honor and dignity in the galaxy of Commonwealths 
under the rule of her own people, and when her coal 
and iron had made her a center of interest to the 
industrial world, Curry made final record in 1901 of 
his reasons for leaving Alabama: — 

No man ever had truer or more devoted friends than 
honored me with their confidence in Alabama, and it was 
with deep reluctance that I turned my face away from 
the State of my boyhood and manhood, which still holds 
my paramount affection. It seemed unwise to keep my 
wife and children under radical misrule, and to remain 
where a generation or more would be needed to recover 
from the disastrous consequences of the War and hostile 
legislation. 

It is manifest that a sharp conflict arose in his 
mind between his duty to his region, which he had 
served so faithfully and which had trusted him so 
completely, and his duty to his young wife who had 
joined her fortunes to his. 

The claims of wife and children prevailed. 



CHAPTER XIII 



IN THE OLD DOMINION 



It will be recalled that in 1866 Curry had been 
offered the presidency of Richmond College, — an 
honor which was declined at the time of its tender. 
But, when upon his return from Europe in October, 
1867, he was notified of his appointment to the chair 
of History and English Literature in the same insti- 
tution, he appears to have regarded the proposi- 
tion with a more favorable consideration. Yet it is 
scarcely probable that this invitation was in any 
large sense a determining factor in his removal from 
Alabama, where he had resided for thirty years. 
The social and political conditions of reconstruc- 
tion, which Virginia had so far escaped, and family 
considerations were the compelling motives, as he 
has himself recorded, which finally induced his de- 
termination to leave his former home. 

With his family, he reached Richmond, which 
thenceforward became his residence, on the 3rd of 
May, 1868; and leaving his son and daughter there 
at the house of his father-in-law, Mr. Thomas, he 
went with Mrs. Curry to Baltimore, to attend the 
Southern Baptist Convention, which was to meet 
in that city on the 7th. According to previous 
arrangement he was to preach the introductory 
sermon before the Convention; but this plan was 
prevented by a singular accident. As they were 

211 



212 J. L. M. CUREY, A BIOGRAPHY 

approaching Baltimore, at a point six miles from 
the city, between it and the Relay House, Mrs. 
Curry, who was seated by her husband's side in 
the carriage, was struck on the head by a stone, 
weighing some four pounds, which was hurled at 
the occupants of the vehicle by some undiscovered 
ruffian; and her skull was fractured. 

''At first," writes Curry, ''I thought that she had been 
shot with a pistol; and did not learn the extent of the 
injury until, on arriving at the Eutaw House, Dr. R. N. 
Smith, the eminent surgeon, came out and informed me. 
She did not recover consciousness until the 9th. We had 
the sympathy and proffers of service from hosts of 
friends." 

No clue to the perpetrator of this outrage, nor 
motive for its commission was ever discovered; but 
it had the effect of disarranging all of Curry's plans; 
and it was not until the 9th of the month, two days 
after the Convention had assembled, that he ap- 
peared before it, and made an address in behalf of 
the Greenville Theological Seminary. His recent 
experiences in Alabama had profoundly impressed 
him with the need of providing religious instruction 
for the newly-emancipated slaves; and we find him 
soon after his visit to Baltimore, and the accident 
to Mrs. Curry, addressing a mass-meeting of Bap- 
tists in Richmond, and urging upon his auditors the 
importance of the Southern people putting forth 
more vigorous efforts for giving the negroes a proper 
religious education. In the meantime he was still 
''preaching," — filling, as opportunity offered or occa- 
sion demanded, the various pulpits of Drs. Fuller, 
Williams, and Hatcher. The astounding readiness 
with which, without technical preparation, he was 



IN THE OLD DOMINION 213 

able to '^preach" to the delight of great critical 
audiences in the big cities proves again the conten- 
tion that the man's overmastering impulse was 
didactic. He had to preach — from some sort of 
rostrum. 

His simimer of this year was more or less unevent- 
ful. In June he was in New York City, preaching in 
the Madison Avenue Church, and receiving and con- 
sidering certain tentative propositions, looking to his 
acceptance of its pastorate, as the successor of Dr. 
H. G. Weston, who had been called to the Presidency 
of Crozer Theological Seminary. Later he attended 
sundry association meetings; and on the 13th of July, 
1868, he signified at last his formal acceptance of a 
professorship in Richmond College. 

For a number of successive summers after the 
close of the War between the States, the Greenbrier 
White Sulphur Springs was the rendezvous of many 
men and women who had been conspicuous for their 
devotion and services to the Confederacy; and, in the 
simple surroundings of the place, the most refined 
and gracious and intelligent society of what was left 
of the old South, was accustomed to gather for a 
brief and unostentatious annual recreation. Thither 
Curry went in the latter part of August, and spent a 
week; and among his former associates, acquaint- 
ances and friends, found there Commodore Matthew 
F. Maury, General Robert E. Lee, General P. G. T. 
Beauregard, General John Echols, Governor Pickens 
of South Carolina, Governor Letcher of Virginia, Sen- 
ator Allen T. Caperton, Mr. Alexander H. H. Stuart, 
and Mr. Alexander H. Stephens. With the tremen- 
dous tragedy of the War immediately behind them, 
it may be well imagined that these illustrious partici- 



214 J. L. M. CUERY, A BIOaRAPHY 

pants in its tremendous endeavors and failures, 
found much to recall of the past, and no less to hope 
and plan for in the future. One wishes that such a 
vivid talker and keen observer as Curry had handed 
down to us some transcript of the talk of this unusual 
company. They had been actors in a great tragic 
enterprise and had failed, but they were not broken 
soldiers of fortune or disappointed adventurers. In- 
deed they came nearer to being martyrs than adven- 
turers — martyrs to idealism and to love of home and 
locality; or else unworldly champions of an idea 
which seemed to them finer than life. Millions of 
silent, proud people still loved and trusted them. 
They were beginning life over again with erect heads, 
and most of them, as poorly paid pubHc servants in 
the fields of education or industry. 

The great dining hall of the famous hotel was filled 
one evening when a gentleman in gray clothes entered 
with a friend and was proceeding modestly to a seat. 
Suddenly some one silently rose as he passed, and, as 
if by magic, the whole company rose without noisy 
acclaim, for they had recognized the face and figure 
of Lee, and spontaneously their hearts had taught 
them to act as loyal subjects do when the king passes 
by. That pure and lofty face was known to them all. 
Some had seen it in the glare of battle. Women and 
children knew it as a symbol of the highest for which 
they had suffered. It was such a scene as could only 
happen to people who had known great sorrow but 
had kept unsullied a standard of human virtue, and 
thus touchingly did homage to goodness worn so 
simply and yet so fair to behold in the noble presence 
of their great leader. 

During the month of September, 1868, with his 



IN THE OLD DOMINION 215 

daughter, Susie, and several friends, he made an 
extensive trip through the West, going as far as Fort 
Hayes, where they were stopped in their further 
journey by the depredations and incursions of hos- 
tile Indians. The return journey to Richmond was 
made in time to permit Curry to begin his new duties 
as a Professor of Richmond College on Thursday, 
October 1. Into this work he entered with his accus- 
tomed energy, and the enthusiasm without which 
men do not accomphsh the great things of life; and 
here for ten years he labored with the assiduity, the 
intelligence and the well-directed effort, which justi- 
fied a later verdict from the public of noble and fruit- 
ful accomplishment. Of this experience he wrote at 
a subsequent day: — 

I have since acted as Associate Professor of Law, and 
am now filling the Chair of Philosophy. My association 
with the College has been very pleasant. I am much 
attached to the students, and they apparently to me. 
My rule is to treat them as gentlemen, and to have them 
regard me not as a hard taskmaster, but as a sympathiz- 
ing friend. 

In the meantime the ''calls" and invitations that 
came up to him from many places and directions to 
pastorships which he persistently dechned, attest his 
continued popularity and esteem among the people 
of his denomination; while his professional duties did 
not prevent a frequent indulgence by him in the ex- 
ercise of his oratorical gifts in the pulpit and upon 
secular occasions. He records that during this year 
he preached sixty sermons, delivered seventy pubhc 
addresses, and wrote a chapter of ''Recollections" 
for Mr. Samuel Boykin's biography of Governor 
Howell Cobb. 



216 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

During December, 1868, the final act of a notable 
drama, growing out of the War between the States, 
was witnessed by Curry. In May, 1866, an indict- 
ment had been found against Mr. Davis, the Presi- 
dent of the Confederate States, then a prisoner at 
Fortress Monroe, by the grand jin-y of the Circuit 
Court of the United States for the District of Vir- 
ginia, and Charles 0' Conor had written a letter to 
the distinguished prisoner, proffering his professional 
services in his defence, which offer had been accepted. 
At the May term, 1867, after repeated and unavailing 
efforts on the part of Mr. Davis' counsel, consisting 
of Messrs. Charles 0' Conor, the acknowledged leader 
of the bar in the United States, William B. Reed of 
Philadelphia and John Randolph Tucker of Virginia, 
George Shea of New York, Robert Ould and James 
Lyons of Virginia, to obtain a trial or bail for the 
prisoner, the case was called for hearing on a writ of 
habeas corpus before Judge Underwood. Attorney 
General Evarts, and District Attorney Chandler ap- 
peared for the government; and Mr. Davis was re- 
leased upon a bail bond of One Hundred Thousand 
Dollars, with Horace Greeley of New York the first 
surety thereon. 

On the 26th of March, 1868, a new indictment had 
been found against the former President of the Con- 
federacy, charging him in a number of counts, and 
in the involved phraseology of the law, with various 
acts of treason, notable among which was that of 
'^conspiring with Robert E. Lee, J. P. Benjamin, 
John C. Breckinridge, William Mahone, H. A. Wise, 
John Letcher, William Smith, Jubal A. Early, James 
Longstreet, William H. Payne, D. H. Hill, A. P. Hill, 
P. G. T. Beauregard, W. H. C. Whiting, Ed. Sparrow, 



IN THE OLD DOMINION 217 

Samuel Cooper, Joseph E. Johnston, J. B. Gordon, 
C. F. Jackson, F. O. Moore, and with other persons 
whose names are to the grand jury unknown," 'Ho 
make war against the United States," and with doing 
various other things, all of which things were al- 
leged to have been done 'traitorously, unlawfully, 
maliciously and wickedly." 

On the finding of this indictment, the trial was 
continued from time to time until the fourth Monday 
in November, when it was arranged that Chief 
Justice Chase should be present. This date was 
later changed to December 3, 1868; and on that 
day the Chief Justice sat with Judge Underwood to 
hear a motion to quash the indictment. On this 
occasion, Messrs. 0' Conor, Ould, Read and Lyons 
of Mr. Davis^ counsel appeared; and the govern- 
ment was represented by the newly appointed dis- 
trict attorney, Mr. Beach, and by Mr. Richard H. 
Dana, Jr., of Boston, and Mr. H. H. Wells, the for- 
mer military Governor of Virginia, when it was 
''District Number One." Mr. Ould opened for the 
defense on the motion to quash, and Messrs. Beach, 
Wells and Dana replied. Mr. 0"' Conor concluded 
the case for Mr. Davis on the 4th; and the Chief 
Justice and Judge Underwood disagreed, and the 
case was continued until May, 1869. On the 15th 
day of February, 1869, the following order was 
entered in the Federal Circuit Court at Richmond: — 

Monday, February 15, 1869. 
United States 

vs. Upon Indictment for Treason. 
Thomas P. Turner, William Smith, Wade Hampton, Ben- 
jamin Huger, Henry A. Wise, Samuel Cooper, G. W. C. 
Lee, W. H. F. Lee, Charles Mallory, William Mahone, 



218 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

0. F. Baxter, Robert E. Lee, James Longstreet, William 
E. Taylor, Fitzhugh Lee, George W. Alexander, Robert 
H. Booker, John DeBree, M. D. Corse, Eppa Hunton, 
Roger A. Pryor, D. B. Bridgford, Jubal A. Early, R. S. 
Ewell, William S. Winder, George Booker, Cornelius 
Bayles, William H. Payne, R. S. Andrews, C. J. Faulkner, 
and R. H. Dulaney, W. N. McVeigh, H. B. Taylor, James 
A. Seddon, W. B. Richards, Jr., J. C. Breckinridge and 
Jefferson Davis. 

. (Two cases.) 
The District Attorney, by leave of the Court, saith 
that he will not prosecute further on behalf of the United 
States against the above named parties upon separate 
indictments for treason. It is, therefore, ordered by the 
Court that the prosecutions aforesaid be dismissed. 

The motion to quash having failed in the dis- 
agreement of the Chief Justice and of Judge Under- 
wood, the fact of the disagreement was certified to 
the Supreme Court of the United States, where the 
case was never called; and thus concluded the pros- 
ecution for treason, against Mr. Davis and his as- 
sociates. 

Curry makes record of the historic event and of 
the argument of this motion on the 4th of December, 
1868:— 

At the Circuit Court of the United States, Chase, Chief 
Justice, presiding, a motion to quash the indictment 
against Jefferson Davis was argued. I heard an able 
argument from Charles O'Conor, one of Mr. Davis' 
counsel. Hon. Wm. B. Reed of Philadelphia was asso- 
ciate counsel. I called to see him, and had a pleasant 
interview. He was a brother of Henry Reed, the author, 
and himself was a graceful and scholarly writer. Our 
acquaintance began by a letter he wrote to me, compli- 
menting a speech in 1859 on the Speaker's election. 



IN THE OLD DOMINION 219 

This cold and almost colorless allusion to an event 
which deeply moved the hearts of the Southern 
people, written by one of the most ardent advocates 
of the right of Secession and of State sovereignty, 
the recognition or condemnation of which doctrines 
at the hands of the law lay in the determination of 
this case, serves to illustrate the cool temper of 
Curry's mind and how quickly he had begun to 
put into practice his precept to his son: '^ Let us 
live in the present and for the future, leaving the 
dead past to take care of itself." Though there is 
nowhere in his voluminous writings to be found any 
recantation of the settled and fixed convictions and 
principles of his political philosophy, when the arbitra- 
ment of the sword had once made final disposition of 
secession and of the Calhoun idea, he did not continue 
to dwell upon his ancient and unsurrendered faith; 
but turned his face steadily to those newer and more 
hopeful aspects, which the later dispensation prom- 
ised. In this respect it may be noted here, that he 
followed the illustrious example, in act and precept, 
of his great commander. General Lee, whose post- 
bellum career was characterized by no repining or 
bitterness, and by such cheerful acceptance of con- 
ditions as his courage and faith might afford. 

During the year 1869, Curry continued to keep 
busy with his collegiate duties, his lectures and his 
sermons, delivering among others two lectures in 
Washington College, at Lexington, Virginia, on 
''Language and Character,'' before cultured and 
appreciative audiences that included in their number 
the great president of the institution. General Robert 
E. Lee. 

During this sessitm the Trustees of Richmond 



220 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

College determined to abandon the governmental 
system of the college, which included a President, 
in favor of the more democratic scheme of making 
the professors of the various schools under the title 
of chairmen administrative heads of the college. 
In this change they pursued the plan of govern- 
ment that had been devised by Mr. Jefferson for 
the University of Virginia, where it had been fol- 
lowed with success since the foundation of that in- 
stitution. Of the two great features of the higher 
education in collegiate and university administration 
and instruction, both of which Jefferson emphasized 
in his foundation of his University, that of the elect- 
ive system of studies has since his time steadily 
grown and prevailed, in more or less modified form, 
until it has become a conspicuous and accustomed 
feature of university and college life in America; 
while the other, namely, of choosing a Chairman of 
the Faculty from the professors in rotation as the 
temporary head of the institution, has been tried in 
various southern institutions, as Curry records its 
trial in 1869 at Richmond College, only to be ulti- 
mately abandoned, as it was abandoned there, and 
has since been abandoned at the University of Vir- 
ginia itself, as inadequate and insufficient under 
existing conditions. It is to be observed, however, 
that Curry makes no comment upon its effectiveness 
or lack of it, as it came under his observation at that 
time. 

At this time the little brown books are full of notes 
of a more or less domestic and personal nature, which 
record the graduation of his daughter at the Rich- 
mond Female College in the schools of English, 
French and Moral Science; f.ie inception of Mrs. 



IN THE OLD DOMINION 221 

Curry ^s work as a teacher of the infant class in the 
Sunday School of the First Baptist Church, of which 
she made a great success, raising this class in numbers 
from thirty, when she first took charge of it, to two 
hundred and twenty-five, when she gave it up ten 
years later, on account of ill-health; and of various 
other incidents and occurrences of temporary per- 
sonal interest. 

The invitations to pastorates still continued to 
be made and declined. 

On his return from St. Louis, in obedience to such 
a call, he heard Beecher preach in the Brooklyn 
Tabernacle; and this year, too, the American 
Baptist Publication Society published his tract, 
'^Protestantism: How far a Failure" — a discussion 
showing the development of his mind in the direc- 
tion of technical theological investigation. 

But perhaps the most notable event of the year 
1869, in its bearing upon his later career, was his 
meeting with Mr. George Peabody. The Peabody 
Fund had, at that time, just been established; and 
Dr. Barnas Sears, an able and scholarly citizen of 
Massachusetts, had been made its Agent, and had 
come south, and taken up his residence at Staunton, 
in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. 

''In 1869," writes Curry of this episode, "at the White 
Sulphur Springs, I had the honor of being introduced by 
Dr. Sears to Mr. Peabody. This was the first and only 
time I ever saw him. The interview was pleasant, and 
I was agreeably impressed by his benevolent countenance, 
the dignity and ease with which he received visitors, and 
his earnest, patriotic desire that the impoverished South 
should be benefitted by his benefaction." 

Curry has left in his "History of the Peabody 



222 J. L. M. CUREY, A BIOGRAPHY 

Education Fund ^' a more extended account of both 
Mr. Peabody and Dr. Sears, the latter of whom he 
visited some years afterwards at his home in Staunton. 

The year 1870 brought to him many occasions for 
wide and varied service in the causes of education 
and reUgion. He attended a National Baptist Con- 
vention in Brooklyn, in April of that year, which 
was held under the auspices of the Brooklyn Social 
Union, — in many respects a remarkable assemblage, 
which gave a great impulse to the educational move- 
ment of the time. Curry delivered an address before 
the Convention on the ''Condition and Prospects of 
Education in the South," as affecting both races, 
with especial reference to the duties of Baptists in 
relation thereto. 

In June, 1870, his almost abnormal activity took 
form in a Report to the Board of Foreign Missions 
of his Church, in which he recommended the estab- 
lishment of a mission in Europe. ''From this," he 
modestly writes in 1877, "came the present success- 
ful Italian Mission." 

Recm-ring to his diaries, we note the genesis and 
beginning of the Richmond College Law School, in 
these simple entries: — 

December 10, 1868. — Trustees of Richmond College de- 
termined to establish a Law School. 

October 11, 1870. — Delivered my first lecture to Law 
Class on Constitutional Law. 

And about 1877:— 

In October, 1870, began the Law School of Richmond 
College, with Mr. William Green, Judge Halyburton and 
myself as Professors, I taking the chair of Constitutional 
and International Law. 



IN THE OLD DOMINION 223 

It was a remarkable faculty with which the young 
law school opened its doors. Curry, himself, was a 
man of unusual distinction, wide experience, and 
strong ability; Judge Halyburton had occupied con- 
spicuous position in the public eye in ante-bellum 
years, and in the era of the Confederacy; and Mr. 
Wilham Green was, by the testimony of his brethren 
of the bar, one of the most learned lawyers then 
living in America. But Halyburton and Green were 
both comparatively aged men, with ''eyes grown 
old with gazing on the pilot-stars"; and neither 
continued long in their new chairs. So that the 
burden of the new law school fell upon Curry, — a 
burden which he bore with his characteristic energy 
and ability for several years. 

On October 12, of this year (1870), General Robert 
E. Lee died at Lexington; and the next month an 
historic meeting of Confederate soldiers was held in 
Richmond to inaugurate a movement for building 
a monument to the great leader of the Southern 
armies. This meeting convened in the Second 
Presbyterian Church; and, amid much enthusiasm, 
speeches were made by ex-President Davis, Generals 
Gordon, Preston, and Hemy A. Wise; and Colonels 
Marshall, Johnson, Withers, and others. The move- 
ment resulted in the noble equestrian monument of 
Lee that is now one of the chief ornaments of Monu- 
ment Avenue in the former Confederate Capital. 

At this time. Dr. Barnas Sears, the General Agent 
of the Peabody Fund, was present in Richmond; 
and on November 2 he was Curry's guest. The 
same day a meeting was held in the Capitol with 
the object of advancing the cause of the Common 
School System, provided by the new Constitution 



224 J. L. M. CUERY, A BIOGRAPHY 

of the State, and already inaugurated by Virginians 
under the restored government of the Common- 
wealth. The deliberations of this conference were 
participated in by Governor Gilbert C. Walker, Dr. 
Sears, W. W. Walker of Westmoreland, and Curry, 
all of whom delivered addresses. 

In December, 1870, the joint committee of the 
two houses of the Virginia Legislature, then in ses- 
sion, to which had been referred the question of the 
disposal of the Government Land Script, held public 
sessions in the Capitol; and various representatives 
of the colleges and higher educational institutions 
presented the claims of their respective institutions 
to the endowment. Curry in two able and earnest 
speeches before this. Committee urged the claims of 
Richmond College; but, as the issue developed, 
without success. 

In July, 1871, the Trustees of Richmond College 
combined the schools of English and Moral Science, 
and elected Curry to the chair. He accepted the 
appointment, resigning the professorship of Law in 
order to give his complete official time to this work, 
which was more congenial to his tastes than that of a 
law teacher. Again his diary is a dry record of the 
addresses that he delivered in 1871, and of the 
pastorates and professorships that he declined. He 
caps the climax of this distinguished, if uninteresting 
period, by the recital of his declination of three Col- 
lege presidencies within the twelve months, namely, 
of Georgetown College, Kentucky, of Mercer Uni- 
versity, Georgia, and of the University of Alabama; 
and notes during the same year his refusal of a pro- 
fessorship in the Southern Baptist Theological 
Seminary. Many more were to follow from all parts 



IN THE OLD DOMINION 225 

of the country, among them that of the University 
of North CaroUna at Chapel Hill, whose record of 
educational distinction might well have proved an 
allurement to his ambition. 

The criterion for the choice of a professor in those 
days was not exact scholarship and published re- 
search, but personality, impressive human qualities 
and teaching ability. This shifting about from law 
to English and from philosophy to theology strikes 
our modern notions queerly, but poverty and the 
emphasis on teaching ability made it possible. 
Curry could teach anything attractively, and his 
energy kept his attainments always in advance of his 
pupils. 

The year 1872 was, in his own words, '^ active and 
memorable"; but more from his personal point of 
view, than from that of the general reader; for its 
record embraces solely the details of energetic work 
done by him in behalf of his church and of the 
educational institution with which he was officially 
connected. Such civic, religious and educational 
honors continued to be showered upon him as are 
usually conferred upon few men; and if his notation 
of them is exact almost to monotonousness, it is none 
the less free from any expression which indicates 
that they brought with them elation or undue self- 
appreciation. 

It was at a great meeting of the association of his 
church that a Memorial Campaign was organized 
that aroused much of his enthusiasm, and to whose 
work he contributed no little of his energies and 
efforts. It was determined to celebrate the fiftieth 
anniversary of the body; ^^and," he states, ^'ap- 
propriately to testify our gratitude, it was resolved 



226 J. L. M. CUREY, A BIOGRAPHY 

unanimously by the Association to raise Three 
Hundred Thousand Dollars for the endowment of 
Richmond College. Resolutions were adopted look- 
ing to a grand meeting at Richmond the ensuing 
year. A Memorial Committee, of which I was a 
member, was appointed to carry out the project of 
the Memorial Fund; and Dr. J. L. Burrows was 
chosen as the Financial Secretary." 

''Thus began," he continues, ''our grand Memorial 
Campaign, when the Baptist Churches were visited, ad- 
dressed and thoroughly aroused. Great excitement was 
produced. Many Baptist preachers and laymen became 
voluntary agents to help on the good work. We com- 
bined with the Semi-Centennial celebration a remem- 
brance of what the Baptists of Virginia had done for the 
great work of Religious Liberty in the United States. 
This involved necessarily a recital of the legislation of 
the Colony and a discussion of the principle of an Estab- 
lishment. Collaterally, Presbyterians and Methodists 
were brought into the discussion; but the Episcopalians 
were especially sore at the production of their unenviable 
record. Carefully I abstained from all attacks upon, or 
criticism of the Church, and confined myself to a discus- 
sion of the Establishment." 

In 1873 the Baptist Memorial Campaign was ac- 
tively and energetically conducted; and to it he gave 
effective and enthusiastic assistance. During the 
latter days of May and the earlier days of June of 
that year the Semi-centennial meeting, which the 
raising of the Memorial Fund was designed to com- 
memorate, was held in Richmond. Delegates were 
present from many States of the Union in the North, 
the South and the West. Curry writes of it that it 
was the largest religious convention that ever assem- 



IN THE OLD DOMINION 227 

bled in Virginia; and certainly it was conspicuous 
among religious gatherings of a similar character for 
the enthusiasm of its participants. The Association 
met in the Second Baptist Church, and he was re- 
elected its President. The building itself was inade- 
quate to hold the great numbers in attendance; and 
the largest audiences were accommodated under a 
huge tent which was erected upon the Richmond 
College grounds. A number of the Church's most 
distinguished leaders and divines were present, 
among whom were Dr. J. A. Broadus, conspicuous as 
a great pulpit orator of his generation, and for his 
unusual gift of eloquence; Dr. J. B. Jeter, a former 
President of the College, and noted as an able preacher 
and strong controversialist, and who was widely 
known as the editor of the Religious Herald, and as 
the author of a number of published works; Dr. 
Sears, the General Agent of the Peabody Fund, and 
one of the most eminent scholars; and Dr. S. S. Cut- 
ting, the first Secretary of the American Baptist 
Educational Commission, and himself a writer and 
theologian of national distinction. On the second 
day of the session Curry delivered to a large and 
deeply interested audience an address on the subject 
of ''The Struggles and Triumphs of Virginia Bap- 
tists," a notable historical contribution to the story 
of the struggle for Religious Freedom in Virginia, 
which was published by the American Baptist Pub- 
lication Society, and reached a wide circulation. 

The Montgomery White Sulphur Springs at this 
period vied with the old Greenbrier White in the 
distinction and eminence of its guests and habitues; 
and in the late summer of 1873 Curry attended a 
meeting there of the members of the Southern His- 



228 J. L. M. CUEEY, A BIOGRAPHY 

torical Society, which was presided over by ''Honest 
John'' Letcher, the War Governor of the Common- 
wealth, and addressed by General Jubal A. Early. 
The object of the Society, which has down to the 
present time continued to maintain a successful and 
highly important existence, was ''to collect and pre- 
serve materials for an authentic history" of the South; 
and among others who were present at this meeting, 
and interested with Curry and their other associates 
in the work of the Society, were Generals Beaure- 
gard, Wilcox, Fitzhugh Lee, Dabney H. Maury and 
Humes, and Commander Raphael Semmes, of the 
Confederate ship, the "Alabama." Curry records a 
later meeting of the Society in October of the same 
year, that was held in Richmond, the partici- 
pants in which were scarcely less famous. Among 
them he mentions General Early, who presided clad 
in a suit of Confederate gray, such as he wore to the 
day of his death; Dr. Hoge, the eminent and eloquent 
Presbyterian divine, whose oration at the unveihng 
of the statue of "Stonewall" Jackson, presented by 
Enghsh gentlemen to the State of Virginia, suggested, 
in its lofty dignity, the eloquence of Bossuet; Gen- 
eral Wade Hampton, later Governor of South Caro- 
lina, and Senator from that State, and ^lajor Robert 
Stiles, whose subsequently published "Four Years 
with Alarse Robert " ranks with the best stories of 
the great tragedy of the War between the States. 
It is pleasant and inspiriting to behold these men, un- 
broken in spirit, taking counsel together how they 
might preserve and increase the spiritual and intel- 
lectual integrity of a society whose outlook then 
seemed almost hopeless. 

Nothing, however, appears to have served in any 



IX THE OLD DOMINION 229 

degree to deflect him from the two things with which 
his mind and heart during this period were overflow- 
ing. His first and foremost thought and effort aUke 
were in behalf of the causes of rehgion and of educa- 
tion; and he continued, whenever his professional 
duties permitted, the self-imposed work of speaking 
and preaching in many places. Of all of these 
speeches and sermons he makes systematic record; 
and among the memoranda of this year occurs the 
following quaint entry of an experience in Southwest 
Virginia : — 

Made a Sunday School talk and preached at a Luth- 
eran Church in the country. Collection taken up for 
Professor of Theology at Roanoke College, sixty cents. 
Hard crowd. 

Sometime in October of this year he attended the 
World's Evangelical Alliance in New York City, 
where he met with severe criticism on account of 
the frankness of his arguments against the alliance 
of Church and State in England. He attacked the 
establishment of the Church in that country with 
an earnestness and vigor that were more character- 
istic than discreet, in view of the presence in which 
he spoke; and he was called to order amid demon- 
strations of considerable feeling and excitement. He 
has left the following account of this episode among 
his notes : — 

Delegates from Europe, Asia and America were pres- 
ent. I delivered an address, prepared by request of Dr. 
Schaff and others on the ''Relations of Church and 
State." An officious extension of time by one Dr. 
Crookes, a Methodist minister, produced an intense 
excitement. The Assembly en masse cheered and hur- 



230 J. L. M. CUERY, A BIOGRAPHY 

rahed and demanded that I should proceed; but I de- 
clined and retired, being followed by three-fourths of 
the audience. Besides its appearance in the proceedings 
of the Alliance, my address was widely published in 
Europe and America, and the Liberation Society of Eng- 
land issued it as a tract to help them in their work. 

Curry^s account of the incident does not seem, 
however, to be exact in the light of the reports of the 
current newspaper-press of the time. These show 
that he was called 'Ho order '^ rather than ''to time"; 
and that Dr. Crookes, who was presiding, interrupted 
him, not so much because his half-hour was up as 
because his speech was regarded as unpleasant by 
some of the English churchmen who were present. 

Curry's status as a citizen of Virginia had by this 
time become so firmly estabhshed, and the impression 
which his ability and devotion had made upon the 
people of the State was so strong that in January, 
1874, members of the Legislature then in session at 
Richmond approached him with the suggestion that 
he should become a candidate for the office of State 
Superintendent of Public Instruction. At this time 
Dr. WilUam H. RufTner, who had drafted the bill 
establishing the public school system under the new 
Constitution of Virginia, and had been elected the 
first Superintendent, was discharging with great 
zeal and ability the duties of the office; and either 
in recognition of RufTner's services in this position, 
or because he did not care to adventure the contest, 
or for some other reason that is not disclosed, Curry 
declined the invitation. At the same session of the 
Legislature, when that body was anxiously looking 
around for a fit and proper person to represent Vir- 
ginia in the Federal Senate, — a search which finally 



IN THE OLD DOMINION 231 

resulted in the selection of Col. Robert E. Withers, — 
Curry's name, with those of a number of other 
native or adopted Virginians, was suggested for the 
position. That his just self-esteem was touched by 
the suggestion is evidenced by the note that he makes 
of it; but it is very questionable if he was ever 
seriously considered by any large number of the 
members. 

^'Visited the Legislature," he writes under date 
of January 10, 1874, in his diary, ^4n session for half 
an hour. Several members propose to use my name 
for United States Senate, as caucus of Conservative 
members have not been able to agree on a can- 
didate." 

In January, 1875, he began preaching at the 
First Baptist Church, according to an agreement 
which he had made in the preceding November to 
supply the pulpit for two months following the 
resignation of Dr. J. L. Burrows. This pastorate 
of two months was prolonged to six; and in the 
meantime he decHned a call for a year. His work 
in this temporary pastorship was broadened by 
degrees in various directions, the most distinctive of 
which was a course of lectures to the church on the 
principles of the Baptists, which were dealt with, 
as he states, ^'not controversially, but for informa- 
tion." 

Curry had now reached the meridian of life — fifty 
years of age. He had come up to Virginia from the 
lower South at forty-three, in obedience to an im- 
pulse always dominant in him, seeking an oppor- 
tunity to array himself with the forces of progress 
and growth. Wealth and dignity of living had 
fallen to his lot, emancipating him from sordid anx- 



232 J. L. M. CUERY, A BIOGRAPHY 

ieties. Love and admiration and sympathy, con- 
ditions absolutely necessary to the manifestation of 
his highest powers, stimulated and pricked him on 
to effort and helpfulness. His health was robust 
and his ambitions keen. He had a genius for pop- 
ularity, a nature for public service. The abiding 
value of the idea of community effort, of collectivism 
in a democracy, came to him instinctively, as they 
did to Jefferson, despite the individualistic theories 
of government held by both. He was such a figure 
of humanitarian enthusiasm as New England had 
produced too luxuriantly, almost rankly, but which 
the South, since Jefferson^s time, had produced 
rarely. He beheld society as an organism trying to 
grow under law. His passion was to aid in finding 
the law and in welcoming and leading the growth. 
He beheld Southern society, with unconquerable 
courage, seeking new standards and new ways of 
life, new economic conditions, amid a devastation 
unequalled in modern times. Proud, sensitive de- 
mocracies must be pleaded with and shown how to do 
things needful to their growth, with infinite tact and 
patience. This was Curry's function. He was a 
pleader and a teacher and an ambassador to a proud, 
capable, stricken, but indomitable democracy. The 
bare record as set forth in this chapter seems scrappy 
and fragmentary. We see an intensely busy man 
teaching youth anything, from law to literature, 
preaching everywhere from the Pacific to the At- 
lantic, foremost in all great educational or religious 
organizations, writing for the press, rushing hither 
and thither and very happy and jubilant, not only 
over the tasks at hand but over the calls that every- 
where came to him to come and help everybody. 



IN THE OLD DOMINION 233 

Looked at closely, however, these virile seven years 
of Curry's in the Old Dominion are not desultory 
years. They form a complete unit and constitute a 
perfect preparation for the supreme work which 
society needed to exact of him. The significance of 
moral character, the training of all the people, the 
spread of social sympathy — this trinity of public 
virtues was the creed this tireless public preacher 
was crying out to the South and to the Nation from 
the vantage ground of the great Commonwealth 
which had given the Nation birth, and had so suffered 
for duty's sake as to evoke the tenderness and re- 
gard of generous minds in all lands. 



CHAPTER XIV 

POLITICS AND PRINCIPLES 

The Presidential election, the result of which was 
finally determined by the extra-constitutional Elec- 
toral Commission, took place in 1876; and Curry, in 
common with the mass of the American people, ex- 
perienced a deep interest in its conduct and results. 
His journal of the period makes usually but scant 
record of contemporaneous politics. The eager poli- 
tician of the 'fifties, absorbed in religious and edu- 
cational work, seemed to have forgotten the existence 
of the machinery of government, but this startling 
event, whose issue threatened at one time grave and 
portentous results, is frequently mentioned by him. 
He notes his exercise of the franchise on election 
day, as follows: — 

Tuesday, Nov. 7, 1876. — Voted before breakfast for 
Tilden and Hendricks, and for amendments to the (State) 
Constitution. 

The following day shows this entry: — 

Wednesday, 8. — News from the election of yesterday 
assures the success of Tilden & Hendricks. Result rather 
unexpected. People gathered in the streets in front of 
the Dispatch office, reading and hearing telegrams from 
various States and shouting vociferously. We feel as if 
the days of Federal tyranny were numbered. Praise God 
from whom all blessings flow. 

234 



POLITICS AND PRINCIPLES 235 

His patriotic exultation was short-lived. On 
Thursday, the 9th, he writes: — 

Negroes very noisy and jubilant over Hayes' election, 
which is not a "fixed fact." 

Other memoranda bearing upon the controverted 
result appear from time to time. 

Nov. 20. — Still much uneasiness about the Presidential 
election. Universal distrust of President Grant and his 
party. Fraud or usurpation not considered beyond their 
purpose or capability. I am tired of this turmoil and 
distrust. I want a country I can love. 

Dec. 2. — The country is much excited about the Presi- 
dential election. In South Carolina. Florida and Louis- 
iana serious charges of fraud and intimidation on both 
sides. Gen. Grant has sent troops to each of the States. 
The votes of those States, if counted for Hayes, elect him. 
One electoral vote will elect Tilden. Business seriously 
affected by the possibility of an outbreak. 

Dec. 6, 1876. — The Legislature of Virginia and the Elec- 
toral College meet in Richmond to-day. Heard that 
Louisiana, Florida, and South Carolina, the doubtful 
States, had been so manipulated as to secure their votes 
for Hayes and Wheeler. 

The early part of 1877 found the issue still unde- 
termined; and in order to reach a settlement the 
contending parties agreed upon the creation and or- 
ganizing of the famous Electoral Commission, which, 
after listening to the arguments of counsel and 
gravely considering many momentous questions of 
law and fact, decided the contest at last according 
to the law of human nature. The Republicans upon 
the Commission were in a numerical majority of one; 
and the Electoral Commission, by a majority of one, 



236 J. L. M. GUERY, A BIOGEAPHY 

declared the Republican nominees elected. Curry, 
keeping tally in his journal of the situation, writes, 
under date of February 10, 1877: '^News this morn- 
ing rather gloomy. Seems as if the Commission by a 
party vote will decide in favor of Hayes for Presi- 
dent.'^ 

Later in the month he and his son, Manly, went 
to Washington; and the diary, under the date of 
February 24, contains the following: — 

After going to the President's house, we went to the 
Capitol and spent most of the day in the House of Repre- 
sentatives, to the floor of which both of us were admitted. 

We witnessed the assembling of the two Houses twice 
to count the electoral votes. Oregon, having passed the 
Commission, was after debate passed on. Pennsylvania 
was objected to. 

Much dissatisfaction with the Commission. Demo- 
crats complain of having been deceived. Some bitterness 
on the part of Northwestern Democrats towards Eastern. 
Southern Democrats opposed to mere dilatory and fac- 
tious opposition. 

Not impressed by the ability of the House. Very few 
of the members with whom I served. 

He again visited Washington on March 2. 

Reached Washington at 1 :30 and stopped at Willard's 
Hotel. Went in the afternoon and at night to the Capitol. 
The Congress having this morning, at 5 a. m., after a 
night's session, elected Hayes President, the business was 
of a routine character. I met in the Senate and House a 
number of old associates. The House did not impress me 
favorably. Many of the members of very ordinary abil- 
ity. At night I remained until 10 o'clock. . . . The 
feeling of Democrats quite bitter, regarding themselves as 
having been cheated out of the Presidency. 



POLITICS AND PRINCIPLES 237 

Curry's natural interest in the momentous ques- 
tion before Congress and the Commission would of 
itself have afforded sufficient reason for his visits to 
Washington at this time; but there was also a ques- 
tion of a more personal character that was doubtless 
an impelling motive for his presence in the national 
capital. His pardon for bearing arms against the 
Government in the War between the States had been 
granted in October, 1865, by President Johnson; but 
during the twelve years following he still rested under 
political disabilities. In 1872 a general amnesty 
bill had been passed by the Congress removing the 
political disabilities imposed by the new amendments 
to the Constitution; but from its provisions were 
excepted about seven hundred and fifty persons, 
who had held the highest positions under the United 
States government. He wanted, as he had written, 
^'a government that he could love"; his ardent tem- 
perament and instinctive patriotism demanded the 
exercise of loyalty, and it was not unnatural, though 
painful, for him to entertain some lack of complete 
affection for the government under which he was 
still inhibited from the right to hold office. The bill 
to remove his disabifities was passed by the Senate 
on February 27, 1877; and on March 2 the formali- 
ties were completed by which he was restored to full 
citizenship. Upon the following day he received an 
extraordinary tribute to his high character, his repu- 
tation for great ability, and his conceded patriotism. 

"I called at the Capitol," he wrote, many years later, 
" and had a pleasant interview with Senator Sherman, who 
had, unsought, interposed in favor of the removal of my 
political disabilities, and for whose integrity, patriotism, 
and ability I had great respect and admiration. When 



238 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

leaving, he asked me if I were not going to see the Presi- 
dent. I repUed that as a matter of respect and friendship 
I should be glad of the privilege, but I had no business with 
him, and besides must leave the city in a few hours. To 
this he answered, 'You ought to go. He likes you very 
much. I have often heard him speak well of you.' 'If I 
were to try to see him, I could not, as hundreds of people 
must be pressing for interviews.' 'I will arrange that. 
He is at my house. Take this card.' Writing something 
on the card, which contained his name and street address, 
he handed it to me, and I left. Arriving at the house, I 
sent in my card and Mr. Sherman's, and was requested to 
wait a few minutes until a deputation from Ohio retired. 
In a few minutes I had a cordial welcome. After the usual 
inquiries, he expressed earnestly his desire and purpose so 
to conduct his administration as to bring the estranged 
sections into harmony and fraternity. Then to my sur- 
prise and gratification he declared his willingness to put 
into his cabinet some Southern men, or a Southern man, 
who had voted for Mr. Tilden, provided the person would 
give his administration an impartial support. A place in 
the Cabinet was tendered to me, but declined with proper 
and sincere expressions of thankfulness for the confidence 
reposed. He then said he was wiUing to appoint Gen. 
Joseph E. Johnston, and wished my opinion as to his ac- 
ceptance on the conditions mentioned. As to his accept- 
ance I had no knowledge, but the acceptance would imply 
necessarily loyalty to his Chief. Having so confided in 
me, I ventured to say that the appointment would defeat 
the patriotic purpose of pacification he so warmly ex- 
pressed. Gen. Johnston was so identified with the Con- 
federacy, his promotion to a high place would awaken bit- 
terest opposition in the North, and its strength would be 
such as greatly to cripple, if not defeat, his policy. After 
asking me about Gov. Hubbard of Texas and Judge Key 
of Tennessee, afterwards made Postmaster General, he 
expressed a desire to make the Federal appointments in 



POLITICS AND PEINCIPLES 239 

the South acceptable to that section. I felt it my duty to 
express strongly my conviction: 'The South will not ob- 
ject to have the offices filled by Northern men, if they are 
honest and true, and go South, not to fleece the people, 
but to identify themselves with the country and its inter- 
ests.' 'It would be better,' he responded, 'not to float the 
office-holders, but to select them from the residents.' 
'No, no,' I interposed, 'you cannot find in the South a 
sufficient number of capable and honest white Republi- 
cans to fill the offices at your disposal.' This was naturally 
received with some incredulity; but I reasserted what I felt 
to be demonstrable truth, and I knew that putting ' scala- 
wags,' as they were called, in responsible places meant the 
defeat of his noble purpose, and the serious injury of the 
South. 

'' This conversation occurred a quarter of a century ago, 
and thanks to President Hayes and the better under- 
standing between the sections, and the wiser action of the 
governments, my strong expressions would now require 
large modifications." 

Curry's diary for this year contains a number of 
interesting, if desultory, entries. Among them are 
the following: — 

March 7. — Took supper with Dr. Coleman. Moses 
Ezekiel, the sculptor, was the guest, — a native of Rich- 
mond, a Jew. He made for the Jews a statue of Religious 
Liberty, which was unveiled during the Centennial. In 
Mr. Ezekiel's studio in Rome we saw the huge block on the 
first or second day after the workmen began upon it. 

Since its author penned the foregoing paragraph, 
the guest of Dr. Coleman's whom he was invited to 
meet has achieved a larger fame that extends over 
two continents, and is illustrated in America not 
only by his statue of Religious Liberty, but by many 



240 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

other noble works of art, that have sprung from his 
chisel in his workshop at the Eternal City in the 
old Baths of Diocletian. Ezekiel, now a chevalier by 
the grace of the King of Italy, was a cadet at the 
Virginia Military Institute in the later years of the 
War between the States, and took part with the 
cadet battalion in their heroic charge at New Market 
in 1861, — an episode that he has commemorated in 
his bronze statue of ^^ Virginia lamenting her Dead," 
on the grounds of the Institute at Lexington. His 
Jefferson, donated by the sculptor himself, adorns 
the north front of the Rotunda plaza at the Univer- 
sity of Virginia. 

Under the same date the diarist writes : — 

The Secretary of the Baptist Publication Society noti- 
fies me to-day that for a tract of mine on The Distinctive 
Principles of the Baptists, the premium of Fifty Dollars 
offered for the best on that subject was awarded. 

He was at his father's old home in Talladega 
County a few days later; and wrote of it in his jour- 
nal: — 

March 13. — Stopped at my father's place, where I 
spent my boyhood years. Much dilapidated. Looked at 
the graves in the garden. A bad custom to bury the dead 
on farms in the country, as they change owners so fre- 
quently. When my father removed to this place in May, 
1838, it was very beautiful. The soil was fertile, the water- 
courses clear, game was abundant, and there were some 
unremoved Indians. 

Of the town of Talladega, under the same date, he 
wrote : — 

Returned to town. Spent some time in the Court 
House, where I practised law and made many political 



POLITICS AND PRINCIPLES 241 

speeches. People are poor and depressed. Radical mis- 
rule has been impoverishing. 

March 3L — Letter from Dr. Hoge, in behalf of the 
Board of Directors, offering me the Presidency of the Vir- 
ginia Bible Society. Declined. 

April 28. — Reached Washington at 2 a. m. St. James 
Hotel. Called on Mr. A. H. Stephens; found him abed 
and cheerful. Spoke highly of Mr. Hayes. 

At Willard's Hotel had a long talk with Senators Gor- 
don and Lamar, Gov. Colquitt of Georgia, and W. H. 
Trescott of South Carolina, on the political outlook. 

Called on Mr. Sherman, Secretary of the Treasury. 

Mr. Lamar and I called on the President and had a 
pleasant interview. The President seems determined to 
unite North and South as one people. He is very sensible, 
good mannered and patriotic. 

During the summer he visited Dr. Sears, in Staun- 
ton, on his return from the Warm Springs : — 

July 31, 1877.— At 12:30 p. m. stage for Millboro. 
View from mountain magnificent. Supper at Millboro. 
Car for Staunton. Arrived at midnight. Found Dr. 
Sears' son waiting to conduct me to his father's house on 
the hill overlooking the town. Place much improved. 
The oaks encouraged; other trees and flowers along the 
gravelled walks. Quite a variety of fruit trees. House 
well arranged, economizing space, and neatly furnished. 

August 1. — Coming from chamber to parlor Dr. Sears 
gave me a cordial greeting. Until 12 in the house and 
under the trees, we talked of Education at the South and 
the Peabody work. Dr. Sears said he was in Boston to 
lecture before the Social Science Association. Geo. B. 
Emerson invited him to a club of Bostonians. Mr. R. C. 
Winthrop, who was present, invited him to present in writ- 
ing his views as to the proper expenditure of the Peabody 
Grant, as the Trustees were to hold their first meeting in 
a few days in New York. This he did in a letter of eight 



242 J. L. M. CUEEY, A BIOGEAPHY 

pages. When the Trustees met, his suggestions were 
adopted, and he was elected Secretary to carry them out. 
Thus arose his connection with the Peabody Fund. 

While Horace Mann was Secretary of the Board of 
Education in Massachusetts, and during Dr. Sears' first 
two years in that office, their salary of $1,500 each was 
paid by a Mr. Dwight. 

In the autumn of the year Richmond was visited 
by a distinguished party of guests, to whom was 
given a cordial and hospitable reception, in which 
Curry bore a prominent part. His account of this 
event appears in his diary. 

October 30. — Accompanied a deputation of the City 
Council and a committee of the Agricultural Society, on 
special invitation to meet the President of the United 
States. At Quantico met him, his wife and his two sons. 
Secretary Sherman and wife. Secretary Evarts, Secretary 
Thompson, Attorney General Devens, General J. T. Mor- 
gan and others. En route great curiosity to see Mr. Hayes. 
At Fredericksburg, a reception. As we came within the 
limits of the City of Richmond great crowds, all the mili- 
tary, fire companies, etc., turned out to welcome the visi- 
tors. At a stand, near Monroe Park, the President and 
Cabinet spoke to many thousands. I was called for. The 
President introduced me as his old college mate; and I 
asked for three cheers, which were given and repeated. 
En route to the hotel the streets were lined with enthusias- 
tic people and flags. The President received at the Ex- 
change Hotel at night. General Morgan our guest. 

October 31. — Called at 10 on the Presidential party. 
Soon started to the Fair. Governor Kemper on the 
grounds, welcomed the President to the State. All the 
members of the Cabinet, and General Morgan and Dr. 
Loring, member of Congress from Massachusetts, spoke. 
Mrs. Hayes was introduced to the multitude, who cheered 
vociferously. 



POLITICS AND PRINCIPLES 243 

The Governor gave the President and party a reception 
and then a collation. 

November 1. — At 10 a. m., the President and Mrs. 
Hayes, Mr. Sherman, Secretary of the Treasury, and Mrs. 
Sherman, Mr. Evarts, Secretary of State, R. W. Thomp- 
son, Secretary of the Navy, Mr. Devens, Attorney Gen- 
eral, Governor Kemper, Generals Joseph E. Johnston, 
W. H. F. Lee and Wickham, Judge Meredith, Hon. J. T. 
Morgan, Senator from Alabama, Mr. James Thomas and 
Miss Kate C. Thomas breakfasted with us. Room hand- 
somely decorated with flowers. 

V/ent to Fair Grounds. President and members of Cabi- 
net spoke. The President reviewed the First Virginia 
Regiment, and some other companies. 

Dined at Col. Hobson's with Generals Morgan, Maury 
and S. G. Jones and Colonel Archer Anderson. 

In the latter part of December, 1877, Curry spent 
several days in New York City, where he met Presi- 
dent Hayes again. He preached at Hanson Place, 
Brooklyn, and attended various gatherings of more 
or less importance. Under date of December 21, 
his first day in the metropolis, he makes the follow- 
ing entry in his journal: — 

In the afternoon, at the Union Theological Seminary, I 
heard an informal lecture of Rev. Joseph Cook before the 
students and others on the Advantage of Philosophical 
Studies in a course of Theological training. Present, Doc- 
tors Adams, Hitchcock, Shedd, Schaff, Hall, Taylor, 
Ralph Wells, and others. 

At night heard him again in the hall of the Young Men's 
Christian Association on Ultimate America. The poet, 
William Cullen Bryant, presided. 

During 1877 Curry's previous experience of re- 
ceiving calls to many pulpits in various directions, 



244 J. L. M. CUERY, A BIOGRAPHY 

and elections to professorships and presidencies of 
educational institutions, was repeated. He was 
offered the Presidency of the East Tennessee Uni- 
versity, and, provisionally, that of Richmond College; 
and he declined calls from churches in St. Louis and 
Baltimore; and he received invitations to make ad- 
dresses and deliver lectures almost without number. 
On February 23, 1877, he makes the following entry 
in his journal, illustrative of the many demands upon 
his time and energies: — 

Invitations to lecture in Norfolk, Portsmouth and 
Petersburg. 

People seem to think that I am a public servant, with 
nothing to do but respond to their calls. 

With all his enthusiasms and aroused interests, 
which responded whenever possible to such demands, 
their number outweighed his strength and time; and 
it is scarcely a matter of wonder that occasionally 
his patience became strained. Many other solicita- 
tions to render all sorts of services, and do all kinds 
of things, were added to the burden of these invita- 
tions. On November 15th he writes in his diary an 
amusing list of what a day may bring forth in the 
life of such a man: — 

As illustration of requests made of me to-day, I have 
been asked, 

1. For photograph. 

2. To read preliminary chapters of a novel, write notice, 
get a publisher. 

3. Obtain employment as associate or corresponding 
editor. 

4. Find grave of a dead soldier, and cost of removal to 
Alabama. 

5. Give opinion on feet-washing, as a religious rite. 



POLITICS AND PEINCIPLES 245 

6. Give opinion on rightfulness of firing tobacco on 
Sunday. 

7. On suits by administrator against a brother-member 
of a church. 

8. Secure appointment as superintendent of schools in 
a county. 

9. Tell what is meant in 24 Matt. 30 by '^Sign of the 
Son of Man in heaven." 

10. Tell whether meteoric shower in 1833 had been 
predicted by scientists. 

This in addition to regular college duties and faculty 
meetings. 

In 1878 the question of the payment of the public 
debt of the Commonwealth, which had been con- 
tracted prior to the War between the States, and 
before the separation of the State of West Virginia, 
largely for the purpose of public improvements in 
what is now both States, came to the front as a mat- 
ter for political disposition. A movement was inau- 
gurated, under the leadership of General William 
Mahone, for a readjustment of the debt on a basis 
which should compel the contribution by West Vir- 
ginia of its proportionate part. A wide difference of 
opinion sprung up in the older State as to its obliga- 
tion and ability to pay the whole debt, and resulted 
in the disorganization of the dominant democratic 
party, and the birth of a new party known as ^'Re- 
adjuster." For several years the question was the 
subject of bitter political contest on the hustings and 
at the ballot-box, with the State and Federal Courts 
taking turns at attempting its legal decision. The 
Mahone party for a time were successful; and the 
democracy was dislodged from power. Colonel Wil- 
liam E. Cameron, the Readjuster candidate for Gov- 
ernor, was elected to that office over Major John W. 



246 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

Daniel; and Mahone and Riddleberger were chosen 
by the Readjuster legislature, the United States 
Senators. 

Curry stood with the Debt-payers. He beheved 
that as Virginia had contracted the debt, and had got 
value for the bonds, which had been expended for 
beneficent public uses, both a legal and a moral obli- 
gation existed for their payment in full, in spite of 
the State's great poverty and of the further fact that 
the debt was owned almost altogether abroad. He 
therefore favored, as against the ^'forcible readjust- 
ment" advocated by Mahone's followers, such a set- 
tlement with the creditors as should be satisfactory 
to them and should preserve the Commonwealth's 
ancient and untarnished financial honor. In Janu- 
ary, 1878, he received a request in writing, signed by 
many of the most eminent ^' debt-paying" democrats 
of Richmond, including Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, 
Bishop Doggett, Drs. Jeter and Hoge, and Judge 
Meredith, to address the people on the momentous 
subject of the State debt. In response to the invita- 
tion, a week after its reception he spoke, with a dis- 
cernment that penetrated at once the core of the 
issue, and with his characteristic political courage, 
upon the subject of ''Laws and Morals" as bearing 
upon the question at stake. His address was deliv- 
ered in Mozart Hall, a meeting-place in Richmond 
whose name became famous during the great politi- 
cal struggle by reason of its association with various 
gatherings of the two discordant and excited parties. 
A large audience greeted with tremendous applause 
his speech of an hour and a quarter, in which he ad- 
vocated his side of the question with unusual power. 
He records with pardonable pride the fact that no 



POLITICS AND PEINCIPLES 247 

address which he ever delivered received more ap- 
probation and commendation than did this one; and 
his spirit so warmed to the contest, that it was not long 
before he was in the thick of it, debating the subject 
with speakers on the other side, or delivering ad- 
dresses in very many sections of the State. Success, 
pronounced though temporary, perched upon the 
banners of his adversaries; and it was only after a 
long period of political acrimony and bad feeling, 
and a bitter struggle through all the courts, that the 
matter was brought to a final conclusion as a political 
issue. ^ 

But politics, as has been said, in spite of his long 
experience in the political forum, had now come to be 
of secondary consideration with him. Without any 
recantation of his old beliefs, but with a steady ad- 
herence to those which the issue of war left to him 
intact and permissible, — and all the while with a 
patriotic acceptance of later conditions, — he had 
long since set his face to a hopeful sunrise, and was 
filled with a spirit of determination to do his best 
for the people among whom he dwelt. Under date 
of November 28, 1878, he writes in his diary: — 

I attended Thanksgiving meeting at the Second Church, 
and spoke. The South has never observed these days, 
from a prejudice against their supposed New England 
origin. I mentioned as cause for thanks: 

1. Good crops. 

2. Arrest of yellow-fever scourge and the Northern aid. 

3. Abolition of slavery. 

4. Divorcement of government from religion. 

5. Constitutional Republic. 

6. Peace, and freedom from entangling alliances; and 
spoke of the future with an honest, intelhgent and Chris- 
tian people. 



248 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

Still holding, as so many of his Southern com- 
patriots had held, to the constitutional interpreta- 
tion of government, -^ the righteousness of State 
rights, and the unrighteousness of centralization in 
the Federal organization, — the one-time ardent seces- 
sionist recognized secession as a thing of the past, 
the earlier advocate of slavery rejoiced that it had 
passed away, and the prophet of the future con- 
ceived that the wise preoccupation of the South 
should be in education and industry rather than in 
politics. I 

Some days later he writes: — 

Met Drs. Cutting and Lathrop in conference in refer- 
ence to holding Institutes for training and instruction of 
colored Ministers. Very cordial acquiescence. 

No record appears among his journals and papers 
of the incidents and happenings of the year 1879; 
but in that year he was still busy with his teaching 
and preaching, while he wrought into the fabric of 
his political campaigning the morality of maintain- 
ing public obligations. 

In 1880 the journals reappear; and an entry in 
March of that year contains the notation of an offer 
from President Hayes of an appointment on the 
Board of Visitors of the United States MiUtary 
Academy at West Point; but the offer appears to 
have been declined, as was a similar one to the 
Board of the Naval Academy at Annapolis, emana- 
ting from the same source. 

After another visit abroad, he returned to Vir- 
ginia; and in the Presidential election of that 
autumn voted for General Winfield Scott Hancock, 
the democratic candidate for President. 



CHAPTER XV 

PEABODY AND HIS TRUST 

In 1866 George Peabody, a wealthy merchant of 
England, who was by birth a native of Massachu- 
setts, of old New England stock, had visited the 
United States, and had made a gift of $2,100,000, 
which he increased to $3,500,000 in 1869, for the 
promotion of education in the South. The first 
General Agent chosen by the corporation of the 
Peabody Fund to administer its trust, as has been 
stated in previous pages, was Dr. Barnas Sears. 
Dr. Sears died in July, 1880; and in February, 1881, 
Curry was elected his successor in the General 
Agency. 

" Thursday, February 3. — Telegram from Hon. R. C. 
Winthrop," he writes in his journal, " and letter of Pres- 
ident Hayes, announcing my unanimous election as Agent 
of the Peabody Fund.'* 

Mr. Winthrop and Curry had already been in 
correspondence with each other on this subject; and 
under date of November 3, 1880, a letter had come 
from the former at Brookline, Massachusetts, to 
the latter at Richmond: — 

My dear Sir: — Your favor of Sept. 30th reached me 
just as I was leaving home to attend our Triennial Church 
Convention at New York. I only returned home at the 

249 



250 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

end of last week; and I am unwilling to leave it longer un- 
acknowledged. 

I thank you for your kind personal expressions, and for 
your offer of a welcome to Richmond. I shall hardly leave 
home again until I go to the meeting of the Trustees at 
Washington on the 1st Wednesday of February. It 
would have been particularly pleasant, and perhaps I may 
say, profitable, for me to meet you before that meeting, — 
if we had come together casually. But any concerted in- 
terview might cause misunderstandings by others, if not 
by yourself. My own views are unchanged since I wrote 
you, and are not in the way of being changed. But I must 
keep myself open to conviction, until I have had a full and 
free consultation with my associate Trustees. Meantime 
I hope and trust that nothing of sectional feeling will get 
into our Board. We have escaped it so far. But yester- 
day's results prove that the air is saturated with prej- 
udice, — on both sides, I fear. I have purposely avoided 
all active participation in political strife since Mr. Pea- 
body charged me with presiding over this Southern Trust. 
I inclose the only expression of opinion which I ventured 
on during the campaign; and that was forced from me by 
an unauthorized use of my name. But it was prophetic of 
the result. Solid Souths and Solids Norths have been 
plainly arrayed against each other, and the issue has been 
very much what I anticipated. A good Providence pre- 
sides over Nations as well as over individuals; and I will 
not question that all will be for the best in the end. But I 
yearn for an era of good feeling, and wish that all the old 
parties could be merged into a grand union of patriots. 

Mr. Evarts has just sent for my files the letter of Dr. 
Cutting, which you sent him. I shall take it, with all the 
other testimonials, to Washington. 

Believe me, Dear Sir, 

Very truly, yours, 

ROBT. C. WiNTHROP. 

Hon. J. L. M. Curry. 



y 



PEABODY AND HIS TRUST 251 

Mr. Winthrop, in his telegram announcing the 
new appointment, had requested Curry's presence 
in Washington, where the Board was in session; 
and accordingly on the day following that of its 
receipt, he went to the Capitol. 

Friday 4. — To Riggs Hotel. At 11 met Peabody Board 
of Trustees, who received me cordially. 

To the Senate and House of Representatives. 

Dined with the Peabody Trustees at Secretary Evarts'. 

Other details of his appointment are recorded in 
an additional entry: — 

In acknowledgment of the high honor sought by many 
worthy applicants, I expressed my sincere thanks, and my 
determination to give my best power to carrying out the 
past policy, with which I was familiar. Gen. Henry R. 
Jackson, a Trustee from Georgia, informed me that Gen. 
Grant made the motion for my election, jocularly remark- 
ing that the nomination was fit to be made, notwithstand- 
ing the gentleman was not from Ohio. 

Curry^s acceptance of the position of General 
Agent of the Peabody Fund necessitated the sur- 
render of his duties as Professor in Richmond Col- 
lege. He accordingly resigned at once; and at the 
close of the session in June was made a Trustee of 
the College, and this office he continued to hold for 
fifteen or twenty years, during a large part of which 
time he was President of the Board. 

To the discharge of his duties as Agent of the 
Peabody Fund Curry brought the varied experience 
of a busy and already distinguished career, the 
enthusiasm which remained a peculiar character- 
istic of his mind throughout his life, and the am- 
bition to put aside the losses of the past in the 



252 J. L. M. CUERY, A BIOGEAPHY 

endeavor of achievement for the future. There 
were very many eminent scholars and educators 
who either made direct apphcation to succeed Dr. 
Sears in the position, or whose names were presented 
by their friends and admirers; but both Mr. Win- 
throp, the President of the great Trust, and Dr. 
Sears, its accomplished General Agent, had long 
before the latter's death fixed upon Curry as Sears' 
successor. In their disinterested judgment his char- 
acter and capacity and catholic spirit conspicuously 
marked him as the man for the place; and in their 
view the members of the Board concurred with a 
unanimity that was without hesitation. 

His association with both Mr. Winthrop and Dr. 
Sears had already informed them of his fitness, and 
had prepared him to take up and develop the work 
on the lines of its successful foundation and former 
conduct. His qualifications were all accentuated by 
the facts of his Southern birth, association, and 
training; and were calculated to appeal to the con- 
fidence and to arouse the favorable expectations 
of both North and South. 

Dr. Sears, with his eye long upon him as the man 
of all men to take up the dropped thread of his own 
ended work, had written to him in February, 1880: — 

We shall be more and more interested in the legislation 
of the several States. We come directly in contact with 
legislative bodies in arranging for normal schools. I would 
not be surprised if when you come to the front (as I confi- 
dently expect you will), you shall find yourself specially 
in this congenial atmosphere. I am sure a great work is 
before you. I do not regret being a pioneer. I only hope 
the pioneer work will be well done. I want no higher 
honor. I could have had no higher joy. , 



PEABODY AND HIS TRUST 253 

It would have taken doubtless a less discerning 
mind than Curry's to interpret the suggestions of 
such communications as this; and he responded to 
them with a study of the Trustees' aims and plans. 
As early as 1873, he had attracted the attention of 
Dr. Sears, who wrote to Mr. Winthrop in that year 
that he knew a man '^at that moment who was 
abundantly qualified and admirably adapted" for 
the duties of the General Agency, ^'if anything 
should happen" to him; and in a later letter in the 
same year he mentions Curry's name as that of the 
man of whom he had written. In a letter of Sep- 
tember 7, 1877, he says: — 

Speaking of our successors, I would say, I have recently 
had Dr. Curry with me, and went over with him all my 
plans and doings. I am more and more satisfied that he is 
our man; he is so many-sided, so clear in his views, so judi- 
cious, and knows so well how to deal with all classes of men. 
His whole being is wrapped up in general education, and 
he is the best lecturer or speaker on the subject in all the 
South. He is in perfect accord with us on all points. If I 
can be the means of securing him for future General Agent, 
I think it will be the best thing I ever did for the Tjustees. 

And in April, 1879, he writes again to Mr. Win- 
throp : — 

I am trying to put things in good order for my successor. 
I keep Dr. C. informed of all I do. He understands well 
that I have no authority, though he knows my opinion of 
his fitness for the office. 

Winthrop shared heartily in Sears' views of Curry; 
and when the time arrived for the election, it was 
only natural that he should have been chosen by 



254 J. L. M. CTJRRY, A BIOGKAPHY 

the Board with the unanimity which his support 
by such authority demanded. 

At the time of Curry's election, the Peabody 
benefaction had been in existence for fourteen years. 
The instrument creating it bears date of February 
7, 1867; and by its provisions sixteen men of national 
reputation, representing in their most intimate local 
attachments the North, East, South and Middle 
West, were made Trustees of the Fund, with power 
to perpetuate their number, for its efficient and 
beneficent administration. The roster of its Trus- 
teeship as constituted by Mr. Peabody contained 
the names of many who were illustrious, among all 
who were distinguished. They were Robert C. 
Winthrop of Massachusetts, Hamilton Fish of New 
York, Bishop Charles P. Mcllwaine of Ohio, General 
Ulysses S. Grant, Admiral D. C. Farragut, William 
C. Rives of Virginia, John H. Clifford of Massachu- 
setts, William Aiken of South Carolina, William M. 
Evarts of New York, William A. Graham of North 
Carolina, Charles Macalester of Pennsylvania, 
George Wetmore of New York, Edward A. Bradford 
of Louisiana, George N. Eaton of Maryland, and 
George Peabody Russell of Massachusetts. 

It was the pin-pose of Mr. Peabody that his gift 
should be employed to meet 'Hhe educational needs 
of those portions of our beloved and common country 
which have suffered from the destructive ravages, 
and the not less disastrous consequences, of civil 
war"; which was an euphemistic statement of great 
delicacy whose meaning pointed to the battle- 
ravaged and impoverished States of the late Southern 
Confederacy. 

On March 14, 1867, Dr. Barnas Sears, the Presi- 



PEABODY AND HIS TEUST 255 

dent of Brown University at Providence, Rhode 
Island, upon the solicitation of Mr. Winthrop, the 
chairman of the Peabody Board, submitted to the 
Trustees a letter, in which he outlined his views as 
to the best methods of carrying out Mr. Peabody' s 
purposes, — a letter which Sears had read to Curry, 
under the oaks at Staunton, as related in an 
earlier chapter. Five days after the submission 
of this letter by Dr. Sears to the Board, the 
Board approved its suggestions; and with a com- 
mon impulse determined that the author of the 
plan which it proposed was the proper man to put 
it into effective operation. Dr. Sears was thereupon 
elected the first General Agent of the Fund. He 
had studied in Germany after graduating from 
Brown University, and had bee^i successively a Pro- 
fessor in the Newton Theological Seminary, Secre- 
tary of the Massachusetts State Board of Education, 
and President of Brown University; and he brought 
to the work, upon which he entered, and which he 
continued during his tenure of the office to conduct 
with great energy and extraordinary tact and 
diplomacy, a varied wealth of educational and pro- 
fessional experience. His noble and disinterested 
career as General Agent, in which he labored with 
unvarying patience and good temper, and with a 
most admirable willingness to modify and adapt 
opinions to developed circumstances, is deserving of 
unqualified praise in the history of education in 
America. He stimulated, with intelligence and in- 
creasing success. State aid to public education; he 
sought to develop a public sentiment in favor of 
general education; and he was efficient in aiding to 
put into the organic and statute laws of a number 



256 J. L. M. GUREY, A BIOGRAPHY 

of the Southern States provision for the establish- 
ment of free public schools. It was due in no in- 
significant measure to the energies and labors of the 
first Agent of the Peabody Fund, that at the time of 
his death in 1880, all of the eleven States of the South 
which had constituted the Confederacy, and were 
the first and chief beneficiaries of Mr. Peabody' s 
endowment, had established public-school systems 
at least on paper, and were moving onward to their 
larger development in response to the educational 
evolution of a new economic and social condition. 

"In each of them," writes Dr. A. D. Mayo, in the Edu- 
cation Report for 1903, ''model schools had been estab- 
lished by the encouragement of Dr. Sears; teachers' insti- 
tutes had been subsidized; the Peabody Normal College 
had been founded, in connection with what remained of 
Dr. Lindsley's University of Nashville; and in all practical 
ways the aid of the Fund, with that of the United States 
Bureau of Education, had been extended to the authori- 
ties of the new State and municipal systems. The great- 
est step of all was the including of the more than 1,000,000 
colored children and youth in the new arrangement in all 
the «x-Confederate States." 

Yet, if the work of the former General Agent was 
important and far-reaching, that which lay before 
his successor was scarcely less so. Measuring liter- 
acy by percentages demonstrated its woeful lack in 
many of these Southern States. These percentages, 
taken among whites and negroes together, demon- 
strate that, as late as ten years after the death of 
Dr. Sears, the averages ran, counting persons ten 
years old and upwards, from 14.4 in the State in 
which there were fewest negroes to 45 in two of those 
in which the blacks were most numerous. The 



PEABODY AND HIS TRUST 257 

Southern section of the Union was impoverished in 
many directions almost to penury, by war, and by 
the reconstruction pillage which followed it; and 
perhaps nowhere was this more keenly felt than in 
those States whose percentage of illiteracy was 
highest. The growth of public sentiment in favor 
of universal education remained to be further devel- 
oped and cultivated among a people, who had hitherto 
believed that the new educational system apparently 
operated to confer the largest direct benefit upon 
those who bore the least part of its heavy burden 
of expense. 

Perhaps no one could have appreciated more 
keenly than did Curry, with his wide experience 
and profound knowledge of conditions, the mag- 
nitude of the task wl;iich he had undertaken, and 
the difficulties and uncertainties that stared him in 
the face at every onward step. In discussing what 
Sears had accomplished before him, Curry writes: — 

It would be a hasty judgment to conclude that the work 
was finished during the period of his agency, or that free 
schools had been established beyond the possibility of de- 
struction. There were many considerations which would 
have made it foolish to relax vigorous efforts for keeping 
alive and strengthening the favoring educational senti- 
ment, and making irrepealable what had been put upon 
the statute books. . . . Some excellent men had deep- 
seated convictions, arising from political, social, or relig- 
ious reasons, adverse to gratuitous State education. The 
experiment of free schools was not, in all localities, so suc- 
cessful as to clear away doubts, and prejudices, and re- 
verse those traditional habits of thought and action which 
the experience of all peoples has shown it to be difficult for 
the mind to free itself from. Time was also needed to pass 
from private to public schools, to quiet or overcome the 



258 J. L. M. OURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

selfish oppositions of those who engaged in private teach- 
ing, and to transfer education to the control of cities and 
States. Prejudice, interest of teachers, sparseness of 
population, impatience of taxation, financial depression, 
were serious hindrances. School-houses had to be built and 
furnished, teachers to be trained, schools to be graded, 
friction to be overcome, and an unfamihar system to be 
accommodated to environments. The whole work of in- 
troducing a new system and improved methods of teach- 
ing was beset with many difficulties, one of the chiefest of 
which was insufficiency of means to pay competent teach- 
ers and continue the schools in session for longer periods. 
(History of the Peabody Fund, pp. 79, 80.) 

While Curry, in his administration of the trust 
committed to his charge, did not hesitate to enter 
into its smaller details, as occasion demanded, or op- 
portunity afforded, he nevertheless made it his habit 
to work largely through the already established 
agencies that had shown themselves of approved effi- 
ciency. He spent much of his time in conference 
with teachers, pastors, school superintendents, and 
college presidents; he addressed, with renewed in- 
terest and enthusiasm, the familiar educational and 
religious assemblies, with which his recent life had 
brought him into such frequent and continued 
contact; he visited schools and colleges, and met and 
mingled with their students and faculties; he made 
himself acquainted by private contact and in public 
speeches with State executive officials and legislative 
statute-makers; he drew near to the fountain-heads 
of social and political effectiveness; and directed 
their flow in streams of irrigating beneficence. 

Even before his first annual report was presented 
to the Peabody Board, in October, 1881, he had al- 



PEABODY AND HIS TEUST 259 

ready addressed the legislatures of Texas, Tennessee 
and Georgia upon the subject of Education in its 
varied relations, including those in which it stood to 
the Peabody Trust. His address to the Tennessee 
legislature, on normal instruction and the Peabody 
Normal College at Nashville, was made on March 18, 
1881 ; and on the preceding day he had made his first 
visit to the College in his new capacity of General 
Agent, to find the names of Peabody, Sears and 
Curry illuminating the walls of the chapel, and to 
meet with an appreciative and enthusiastic greeting 
on the part of those to whom he spoke. 

Of the Normal School at Nashville, which, at this 
time of Curry's visit, had already been in existence 
for more than five years. Dr. Mayo has written an 
account in the ^^ Education Report" for 1883. 

"In due time the Peabody Fund, under the expert guid- 
ance of Dr. Sears, was brought to the parting of the ways 
encountered by every public school system everywhere. 
Even before the death of Dr. Sears, which occurred at 
Saratoga, New York, July 6, 1880, it was realized that the 
moderate income from $2,000,000, rarely exceeding $100,- 
000, must be concentrated largely on the training of teach- 
ers. In 1875 arrangements were made with the corpora- 
tion of the University of Nashville, Tenn., for the absorp- 
tion of its academical features and the use of its buildings 
in an institution named the Peabody Normal College. 
With no help from the State, the school was opened on 
December 1, 1875, in one room, with thirteen female 
pupils, under the Presidency of Dr. Eben S. Stearns of 
Massachusetts. The trustees established scholarships 
for the benefit of all the ex-Confederate States and West 
Virginia worth $200 a year for two successive years, the 
number limited to the delegation in Congress of each 
State. The result was that during the twenty-one years, 



260 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

1876-1897, twelve States received $383,584.10 in Peabody 
scholarships. A crisis in the finances of the College raised 
the question of its removal to Georgia in 1880; but in the 
spring of 1881 the city of Nashville and the State of Ten- 
nessee came to the rescue." (p. 536.) 

The annual appropriation for the College, made by 
the legislature of Tennessee in 1881, was $10,000; 
but it was coupled with such conditions that only 
one-half of that amount was actually realized. In 
1883 the State, acceding to a proposition of the Pea- 
body Trustees, made the $10,000 an annual appro- 
priation, unqualified by other conditions or encum- 
brances; and in 1891 the amount was increased to 
$15,000 per annum. Dr. Stearns, the first President 
of the College, died in 1887, and was succeeded in the 
Presidency by Dr. William H. Payne, who had been 
Professor of the Art and Science of Teaching in the 
University of Michigan. Dr. Payne's election and 
acceptance of the oflfice were brought about by the 
influences of Curry, who was at that time at home in 
America, on a leave of absence from his post as 
United States Minister to Madrid. Dr. Payne held 
the oflSce until 1901, when he resigned; and in his 
place the Hon. James D. Porter, a former governor 
of Tennessee, and a staunch and well-known friend 
of the College, was elected. 

It may be remarked in passing that while the 
policy of establishing and encouraging normal 
schools had the favor of the Peabody Board from the 
beginning, this policy was carefully and conserva- 
tively exercised, until the several States had all been 
committed thoroughly to the more elementary prin- 
ciple of organizing public free schools, and establishing 
them upon a permanent basis and progressive system. 



PEABODY AND HIS TEUST 261 

On Wednesday, October 5, 1881, the Peabody 
Board of Trustees assembled in annual meeting at the 
Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York City. It was their 
twentieth assembling; and there were present Mr. 
Winthrop, the chairman, and Messrs. Fish, Aiken, 
Evarts, Wetmore, Stuart, Barnes, Whipple, Jackson, 
Hayes, Manning and Lyman. Curry submitted to 
the Board his first annual report, which in the printed 
records of the Proceedings of the Peabody Education 
Fund occupies thirty-one octavo pages. 

Appropriately and generously, the General Agent 
began his report with a tribute to his predecessor, 
and a review of the work that he had accomplished. 

''To succeed one so competent," he writes, "was an 
embarrassment and a stimulus, exciting fears and giving 
encouragement. To walk in his footsteps was an impossi- 
bility; to profit by his almost unerring wisdom and sagac- 
ity has been my daily experience. No one can study the 
work of Dr. Sears, as I have had occasion to do, without 
being filled with wonder and admiration at his adapted- 
ness to the difficult and delicate duties he had to discharge. 
. . . The best eulogy of Dr. Sears is that he met all the 
requirements." 

The Proceedings of the Peabody Education Fund 
have been published in a series of volumes; and Curry 
has left behind him a '' History of the Peabody 
Fund," in which his association with the Trust is 
dealt with at length. It would therefore be a work 
of supererogation to dwell at length in these pages 
upon what has been more fully and better presented 
elsewhere. But in order to keep before the mind of 
the reader Curry's figure and life and mental attitude 
towards what had come to engage his best energies 
and most eager efforts, some passages from this first 



262 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

report of his may be appropriately quoted here. 
After further comment upon the character of Dr. 
Sears and upon the value of his services, Curry pro- 
ceeds to point out the need of a constant and contin- 
ued vigilance on the part of the Board, that no step 
gained might be lost, and that other and pressing 
demands might be properly met. With a yet unas- 
sured confidence in the ultimate establishment of a 
fixed public opinion in behalf of general education, 
and with a large experience in dealing with legisla- 
tive bodies, he felt it uncertain to rely alone upon the 
statute-books for the systems of public instruction, 
and unsafe to relax any vigilance or omit any use of 
energetic effort. "Nulla vestigia retrorsum;^^ "Vigi- 
lantibus, non dormientihus,^^ seemed to be the charts 
by which he sought to direct his sails over a yet tem- 
pestuous and uncertain sea. 

"Free schools," he declares, ''have a ceaseless enemy in 
the illiteracy of the masses. Ignorance does not feel its 
needs. Enlightenment must come from without. The 
uneducated do not appreciate the import and value of 
education. When to fearful illiteracy there are superadded 
changed social conditions, remodelling of laws and consti- 
tutions, and general pecuniary prostration at the South, 
there will be apparent and imperative need for money that 
State and local taxes and ecclesiastical and private bene- 
factions cannot supply." 

These statements were truisms, so potent in them- 
selves, and so well known to the Trustees, as to seem 
to require no reiteration. And yet it was as abso- 
lutely a necessity for Curry himself, and for the mem- 
bers of the Board, to carry them constantly in their 
view, as it is for the mariner to watch the veering of 
his compass' needle in sailing his charted ways. 



PEABODY AND HIS TRUST 263 

"Since my appointment," he continues, ''I have visited 
all the States included in our work, except Florida and 
West Virginia, and by special request have made addresses 
before the legislatures of Texas, Tennessee and Georgia. 
These visits have given me an insight into the workings of 
school systems, and a personal acquaintance with school 
and other public officers, which must be of much value. 
As your comprehensive plans are carried on under State 
auspices, mere office work will not enable me to accom- 
plish them. Besides the need of awakening and keeping 
alive the public mind on the general subject of free educa- 
tion, there must be conferences with law-makers and school 
officers, and the stimulation of such legislative action as 
will consummate and perfect the widely beneficent ends 
you have had so steadily in view. 

''Although, for convenience, the late avowal of the Trus- 
tees as to their future purpose has been termed a 'new de- 
parture,' yet from the first consultations two grand objects 
were determined upon. 'The urgent and pressing physi- 
cal needs of an almost impoverished people' precluding 
them 'from making, by unaided efforts, such advances in 
education as were desirable, the Trustees decided the es- 
tablishment of public schools and the training of public 
school teachers to be the wisest disposition of the Fund. 
Free school education and Normal Schools were the ob- 
jective points, and these, looking to permanent results, 
have had the support of the Trustees throughout the en- 
tire history of the Trust. Instead of distributing the in- 
come of the Fund promiscuously, aid has been concen- 
trated on a few central schools of a high order, to serve as 
examples and incentives, rather than on a larger number 
of inferior or less influential schools. During the present 
year help has been given to a few schools, and has been 
promised to a few others, in communities where insuffi- 
cient State revenues have been generously supplemented 
by local taxation. 

"The instruction of the Board to apply the greater por- 



264 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

tion of the income of the Fund hereafter to the education 
of teachers for the pubhc schools has met with general and 
decided approval. 

'* . . . Special aid has been given to Teachers' Insti- 
tutes, defined by some one as ' locomotive Normal Schools. ' 
. . . Normal Schools, as having continuous life and 
influence, and coming more literally within the purview 
of the instruction of the Trustees, have had much thought 
and labor. Permanent arrangements are needed to train 
the multitudes of teachers which our school systems de- 
mand. The short-lived Institutes are not attended by all, 
or by the most incompetent, and cannot give thorough 
professional discipline and training. Not a few summer 
months, but toilsome years, are indispensable to teacher- 
training. 

''The Normal College at Nashville has been regarded 
by the Trustees with peculiar favor, the purpose being to 
build up an institution of very high order, and a fit monu- 
ment of the benefaction of Mr. Peabody. For years the 
College was sustained largely by their donations, efforts to 
secure direct State aid and co-operation being fruitless. 
The Trustees of the University of Nashville gave what aid 
they could with their limited means, but there was an in- 
creasing disappointment at the want of co-operation on 
the part of the State. You were, therefore, constrained to 
consider seriously the withdrawal of your donation, and 
the giving of help to a State which would show by ade- 
quate pecuniary aid a higher appreciation of a Normal 
College. It is needless to recapitulate the protracted and 
embarrassing negotiations which oppressed the mind and 
impaired the health of the late General Agent. Suffice it to 
say that such assurance and guaranties of permanent as- 
sistance were obtained as to convince Dr. Sears that the 
entire or chief burden of sustaining the College would not 
hereafter fall on the Peabody Fund. The question of with- 
drawing aid from the College was therefore cheerfully 
abandoned." . 



PEABODY AND HIS TEUST 265 

The report then states the agreement which had 
been reached during the year, by which aid, amount- 
ing to several thousand dollars annually, was guar- 
anteed by the State of Tennessee to the Nashville 
Normal College; and indicates the strong probabil- 
ity, which later became a reality, that more liberal 
appropriations would soon follow. This statement is 
succeeded by a more particular and detailed account 
of the work that was then in progress, in connection 
with the Fund, in each of the States of West Vir- 
ginia, North Carolina, South CaroUna, Mississippi, 
Tennessee, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas; and the 
report closes with a table, showing what portions of 
the total expenditure of $50,375.00, made during the 
year, had been applied respectively to Teachers' In- 
stitutes, permanent schools, Nashville scholarships, 
and educational journals in the several States. 

This first report of the new General Agent made, 
as was to have been expected, a very favorable im- 
pression upon the Trustees of the Fund; and is set 
out here, in its somewhat dry details, both as show- 
ing the conditions surrounding Curry's undertaking, 
and as illustrating his comprehensive and immedi- 
ate grasp of the situation. After hearing it read, 
there could remain no doubt in the minds of the mem- 
bers of the Board, if such a doubt had even for a mo- 
ment existed, that they had found the right man for 
the place. 

His diary for the year, 1881, under date of October 
5, contains the simple entry: — 

Trustees met. All present except Waite, Chief Justice, 
and Mr. Russell. 

Read my first Report. Much complimented. 



266 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

During the succeeding official year Curry contin- 
ued his work upon the hues and according to the 
methods theretofore pursued, and with a steady and 
glowing enthusiasm and an ever unabated industry. 
He attended the local Institutes, visited schools and 
colleges, made speeches at educational meetings, and 
availed himself of whatever opportunities offered 
themselves to his alert and eager intelligence of ad- 
vancing his cause. He paid especial attention, too, to 
arousing the interest of public men and State officials 
in his work, and before the anniversary of his first 
annual report came around again, he had made ad- 
dresses in behalf of State aid to education before the 
legislatures of West Virginia, South Carolina, Geor- 
gia, Mississippi and Texas. 

The progress of his work, and the misconceptions 
of many as to its significance, may be read in an ex- 
tract from his second Report, made to the Trustees 
October 4, 1882:— 

Although the administration of the Peabody Fund has 
been in operation since 1867, and twenty full reports have 
been published and widely distributed, it affords matter 
for surprise that inaccurate notions are entertained as to 
the intention of Mr. Peabody, the amount of the Fund, 
and the oft-declared policy of the Trustees. Application 
for aid for the most diverse objects — educational, religious, 
charitable, personal — are constantly made. It seems al- 
most impossible to eradicate two misapprehensions; first, 
that the Fund was intended as a charity for the poor; and 
secondly, that all schools, complying with the prescribed 
conditions precedent, are entitled to promote assistance. 
One of the most urgent pleas for help is that the commu- 
nity is poor. Much as this appeal may excite personal sym- 
pathy, the Fund is not eleemosynary, but has a distinct 
and well-defined object. As the income of the Fund is 



PEABODY AND HIS TEUST 267 

limited, only a few schools can be aided; and the Trustees, 
in accordance with the wish of Mr. Peabody, by judicious 
selections of schools and localities, and by appropriations 
limited as to amount and time, have sedulously striven to 
aid in the establishment of a permanent system of ''free 
schools for the whole people." The prime purpose of 
aiding nascent school-systems of the Southern States, so as 
to enable them to attain to permanency and efficiency, has 
been kept steadily in view. Thus to stimulate communi- 
ties and States has required wisdom, patience, firmness, 
acquaintance with men and educational systems, large 
correspondence and much travel. 

Another error, not so prevalent, is that the Fund is for 
the exclusive benefit of the white race. By carefully 
chosen language, both races were included in the benefac- 
tion; and the late and the present General Agent have es- 
teemed it a patriotic and Christian privilege to carry out 
the wishes of the Founder of the Trust and of the Trus- 
tees, that no discrimination betwixt races should be made 
beyond what a wise administration required. In every 
State aid is given to the colored race and the General 
Agent has frequently besought and obtained from State 
Superintendents special efforts in behalf of colored schools 
and colored teachers. 

This statement of Curry's in regard to the attitude 
of the Southern States towards the education of the 
negroes carries with it a significance, which it doubt- 
less gave him pleasure to indicate. All of these 
States, by the time at which he wrote, had recovered 
themselves from the political and social chaos into 
which they had been plunged by the War and by 
Reconstruction; and though none of them had 
emerged from the poverty that had been thrust 
upon them by these two equally tragic episodes, they 
were already affording an example, unparalleled, 



268 J. L. M. CUERY, A BIOGRAPHY 

perhaps in the history of the world, of unselfish pur- 
pose to hft up and elevate by education a servile and 
untaught race, that had been so short a time before 
but ^'hewers of wood and drawers of water" among 
them. 

''One cannot but contemplate with intense joy," he 
continues, "the potent agencies which are at work to place 
beyond contingency or peril the free-school systems. If 
it were not invidious, it would be pleasant to specify certain 
Southern newspapers, which, although chiefly pohtical, 
have given column after column to accounts of Normal 
School and Institute exercises, and to convincing argu- 
ments in favor of free schools. Unusual as such mention 
may be, it would be unjust not to refer to the valuable 
labors of Rev. A. D. Mayo, one of the editors of the 'New 
England Journal of Education,' whose addresses in Vir- 
ginia, North Carohna and South Carolina have been stim- 
ulating and instructive, and whose ministry of education 
has been productive of much good." 

Curry then gives an account of the *' Slater Fund," 
about the organization and work of which President 
Hayes, one of its incorporators, had already been 
seeking his advice. 

"On 2 March, 1882," he continues in his second report, 
"John F. Slater of Norwich, Connecticut, gave one mil- 
Hon of dollars in trust to several gentlemen, who have been 
created by the State of New York a body politic and cor- 
porate by the name of 'The Trustees of the Slater Fund.' 
Two of the members of this Board, Ex-President Hayes 
and Chief Justice Waite, are among the corporators. The 
general object of the trust is to apply, for a term of years, 
the income to 'the uplifting of the lately emancipated 
people of the Southern States and their posterity, by con- 
ferring on them the blessings of a Christian education,' so 
as ' to make them good men and good citizens.' While the 



PEABODY AND HIS TEUST 269 

prosecution of the general object is left to the discretion 
and largest liberty of the Trustees, Mr. Slater indicated as 
desirable objects 'the training of teachers from among the 
people requiring to be taught ' and ' the encouragement of 
such institutions as are most effectually useful in pro- 
moting this training of teachers.' " 

That the Trustees of the Slater Fund were already 
largely relying on Curry's judgment and experience 
in perfecting their organization and mapping out 
their work is indicated by the letters which Mr. 
Hayes had written him. 

"I thank you," wrote the ex-President, from Fremont, 
Ohio, under date of April 20, 1882, ''for the speech and 
your letter. The consolidation of educational funds has a 
great deal to recommend it. We have suffered vastly in 
Ohio by scattering among thirty or forty colleges funds 
which would have amply endowed three or four. But it is 
idle to criticise. We must make all we can out of existing 
facts. 

"I shall want to confer with you about the line of action 
that is wise for the Slater Trustees to take, and would like 
to know of your probable movements for the next two 
months. If a charter is granted, as we expect, by the State 
of New York, our headquarters will be in the City of N. 
Y., and I shall go there perhaps two or three times yearly. 

"I shall take occasion to correct the misapprehension 
as to the work of the Peabody Fund among the colored 
people." 

And again Mr. Hayes writes to Curry on the same 
subject: — 

Fkemont, 0., 

5 July, 1882. 
My dear Sir: — I send you herewith the act incor- 
porating the Trustees of the Slater Fund, and Mr. Slater's 
letter defining the Trust. . , ^ 



270 J. L. M. CUREY, A BIOGRAPHY 

At the first meeting held in New York in May, the trus- 
tees appointed a Finance Committee, an Executive Com- 
mittee, consisting of the President of the Board, the Secre- 
tary, President Oilman, Oov. Colquitt, Dr. Boyce and 
Hon. Wm. E. Dodge; and a Committee on Rules. Presi- 
dent Oilman is permanent Secretary. Mr. Jessup is Treas- 
urer. 

The funds were invested by the Finance Committee at 
about six percent interest. The rate of interest of the se- 
curities taken is six percent, but a small premium was paid. 

Inasmuch as the income, only, can be expended for the 
purposes of the Trust, no expenditure will be made until 
after next December, when the first income will be avail- 
able. In the meantime a Oeneral Agent will be appointed, 
and a policy and plans matured. The subject of a Oeneral 
Agent and plans are before the Executive Committee for 
consideration and report. The next meeting of the Board 
will be in October, in New York, at the time the Peabody 
Trustees hold their meeting. 

Throughout the proceedings thus far the Peabody 
Trust has been the model in the mind of Mr. Slater, and of 
the Trustees of his appointment. 

No person has been fixed upon for Oeneral Agent. I 
am inclined to think that a Southern man should be se- 
lected. Dr. Haygood and Mr. Orr of Oeorgia have been 
suggested. Neither is a candidate, and I do not know that 
either would accept. Dr. Steiner of Md. is in the same 
position. Can you aid us with a confidential suggestion? 
Indeed, after reading the trust deed, may I not hope for 
suggestions from you on the whole matter? One of the 
points which I deem important is such an administration 
of the trust as will strengthen the cause of Education in 
the South, especially for the Colored. It seems to me that 
one of the best things now doing by you with the Peabody 
Fund is the aid afforded to those who are creating a sound 
public sentiment on the subject of Education in the 
South. 



PEABODY AND HIS TRUST 271 

I would like to preserve the particular copy of the Slater 
trust paper which I send you, — but keep it as long as you 
wish. 

Sincerely, 

R. B. Hayes. 
Hon. J. L. M. Curry, 
Richmond. 

Another of the ^^ potent agencies" for education 
of the South, which rejoiced Curry's heart, and of 
which he also makes mention in his report of October, 
1882, to the Peabody Trustees, is the endowment of 
the ^^Tulane Administrators," which resulted in the 
establishment of The Tulane University at New 
Orleans. 

''Another illustration," he writes, ''of honorable munif- 
icence, more local in its benefits, is the gift of Paul Tulane, 
of New Jersey. To certain persons, incorporated under 
the name of ' The Administrators of the Tulane Education 
Fund,' Mr. Tulane, in June, 1882, executed a trust-deed, 
conveying certain real-estate, in the city of New Orleans, 
State of Louisiana, ' for the promotion and encouragement 
of intellectual, moral, and industrial education among the 
white young persons in the city of New Orleans, and for 
the advancement of letters, the arts and sciences therein. 

"Such benefactions, for such unselfish purposes," com- 
ments Curry, "are honorable to our race and country, and 
their influence will survive with increasing strength and 
usefulness. Mr. Slater says: 'I am encouraged to the exe- 
cution, in this charitable foundation, of a long-cherished 
purpose by the eminent wisdom and success that has 
marked the conduct of the Peabody Education Fund in a 
field of operation not remote from that contemplated by 
this Trust.' The letter of Mr. Tulane furnishes internal 
evidence, corroborated by the statement of the counsel 



272 J. L. M. CUERY, A BIOGRAPHY 

who drew the papers, that the gift of Mr. Peabody and the 
administration of the Fund afforded much assistance in 
shaping the terms of the trust. 

"Stimulating and valuable as are these gifts, the South- 
ern States cannot rely on individual beneficence. Educa- 
tion is a civil as well as a parental duty. It is of the es- 
sence of true manhood. By no other means can man make 
the best of himself and fulfil his obligations. It is his in- 
alienable birthright. What is true of all men is especially 
true of an American citizen. General intelUgence is neces- 
sary to popular liberty, to the safety and perpetuity of our 
representative institutions. '' 

In May, 1882, Curry, as their General Agent, pre- 
sented on behalf of the Peabody Trustees to the 
United States Congress a petition, calling the at- 
tention of that body to a former memorial of the 
Board, which had been presented two years earlier; 
and renewing the solicitation contained in the 
memorial, that the Federal Government's aid be 
given in co-operation with the public school systems 
in the Southern States. 

In October, the Trustees of the Fund held their 
regular annual meeting in New York, to which Curry 
reported satisfactory progress in the work under his 
charge. He had visited nearly all the Southern 
States, and by request had addressed the legislatures 
of North Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Tennessee and 
Arkansas, in each of which States the movement in 
behalf of general education had aroused the interest 
of its public men. He reported further at this 
time : — 

All the State Superintendents have been cheerful in 
their co-operation with the General Agent, and zealous in 
their respective States for the Public Schools. It would 



PEABODY AND HIS TRUST 273 

be ungrateful and unjust not to make mention of the aid 
often given by him to the Bureau of Education at Wash- 
ington. General Eaton, beyond a technical discharge of 
office work, delights also to advance the general cause by 
his abundant information, wide experience, personal coun- 
sel, and eloquent voice. 

The year has been marked by the usual assemblages of 
educators. The discussions are taking a wide scope, and 
embracing problems connected with education which show 
the increasing importance of the subject. . . . There 
is a growing recognition of the alHance betwixt industrial 
and mental training. ... In some of the States a 
new phase of the free school question is presenting itself. 
Kentucky has recently stricken from her statutes an un- 
wise discrimination betwixt the races in the disbursement 
of school funds; but in the flush of our rejoicings over such 
a triumph of patriotism and generous self-sacrifice, we 
find a disposition elsewhere to adopt what Kentucky, after 
trial, has cast aside. It is not proper in this Report to 
mention, much less to discuss, the causes which have cre- 
ated this hurtful sentiment in favor of throwing upon each 
race the burden of educating the children of that race. 
Were we to concede all that is claimed as justifying the dis- 
crimination, it might be conclusively replied that the 
confinement of the school revenues pro rata to the race 
paying the taxes is a measure that originates in narrow 
prejudice, or is punitive for certain alleged political of- 
fenses, and is, therefore, an unstable and unworthy ground 
for the legislation of Christian statesmen. 

Pubfic education at pubHc cost has its best defence in 
the obligation to preserve national life. 

This attitude of Curry's in favor of meting out 
equal and exact justice in the distribution of State 
funds in aid of education to both whites and blacks 
was one which he had assumed long before his con- 
nection with the Peabody Fund, and had pubHcly 



274 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

announced as early as 1866, in his speech at Marion, 
in which he had advised the people of the South to 
pay of their poverty for the education of the dense 
mass of negro ignorance in their midst, upon which 
the readjustment of a revolutionized society had 
conferred the privileges of an unintelligent citizenship. 
The preservation of the national life seemed to him 
impossible without the education of the citizenship 
which goes to make up that life; and in this view 
there was no divergence by him from the demo- 
cratic attitude on the subject of education, which 
was held by his political exemplar, and the founder of 
the school of governmental thought to which he had 
always maintained allegiance. Mr. Jefferson had 
not only been an advocate of State aid to higher 
education, but he had insisted that the State Uni- 
versity, in the properly constructed educational 
system, should be the capstone of the common 
schools, supported by local taxation. For him the 
common school was an essential part of the free 
government of the individual citizen, whose func- 
tions should be: — 

(1) To give to every citizen the information he needs 
for the transaction of his own business; 

(2) To enable him to calculate for himself, and to express 
and preserve his ideas, his contracts and accounts in writ- 
ing; 

(3) To improve, by reading, his morals and faculties; 

(4) To understand his duties to his neighbors and coun- 
try, and to discharge with competence the functions con- 
fided to him by either; 

(5) To know his rights; to exercise with order and jus- 
tice those he retains; to choose with discretion the fiduci- 
ary of those he delegates; and to notice their conduct with 
diligence, with candor and judgment. 



PEABODY AND HIS TRUST 275 

(6) And, in general, to observe with intelligence and 
faithfulness all the social relations under which he shall be 
placed. 

The '^ readjustment " by one or more of the 
Gulf States of some of the bonds included in Mr. 
Peabody's donation was engaging the attention of 
the Trustees at this time. In 1886 the Peabody 
scholarships were withdrawn from those States; but 
in 1892 they were restored. At the meeting of the 
Board in October, 1883, a memorial was presented, 
signed by Bishop Thomas U. Dudley, Dr. W. H. 
Whitsett, Dr. John A. Broadus, Rabbi A. Moses, 
Vice-Chancellor John G. Simrall, Dr. Basil Manly, 
and eighteen others, prominent citizens of Kentucky, 
praying that their State might also be included 
among those receiving the benefits of the Peabody 
Fund. The memorial was referred to a committee 
consisting of Messrs. Waite, Fish and Jackson of the 
Trustees, who in their report embodied the following 
resolution : — 

That this Board will cordially unite with the people of 
Kentucky in any effort that may be made to create an 
interest in favor of education by means of public schools, 
and the General Agent is requested, if an opportunity 
should be afforded him, to address the Legislature on the 
subject, and to do what else he can to direct attention to 
the importance of making ample provision for the per- 
manent establishment and maintenance of such a system 
of schools in the State. 

This report was accepted by the Board; and on 
the 25th of January following, Curry, by special in- 
vitation, appeared before the Legislature of Kentucky 
and delivered an address along the lines of the 



276 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

Peabody Board's resolution. The Legislature soon 
afterwards passed a bill providing for great improve- 
ments in the public school system; but the aid to 
the State on the part of the Peabody Board appears 
to have been little more than that of a tender of 
moral encouragement; for it seems that no dis- 
bursements of money were ever made from the Fund 
to education in Kentucky. 

Some of the entries in Curry's diary about this 
time are not without a personal interest. In 
December, 1883, Matthew Arnold visited Richmond, 
and was hospitably received by many of its prom- 
inent citizens. Curry writes in his diary under date 
of the 18th of that month: — 

Called on Mr. Matthew Arnold. Heard him lecture at 
night on ''Literature and Science." 

And on the day following: — 

With Mr. Arnold visited two colored schools. 

Early in 1884 he writes: — 

January 30. — Called on George Bancroft at Washing- 
ton. Had a very pleasant interview. 

But the journal is unfortunately silent as to the 
impressions which were made on him, at this time, 
either by the English author of ''Literature and 
Dogma," or by the great American, whose monu- 
ment is his ''History of the United States." 

In April, 1884, he was elected President of the 
Board of Trustees of the State Normal College for 
Women, at Farmville, Virginia, which had been 
recently estabhshed by the Virginia Legislature, and 
to the Principalship of which Dr. William H. Ruffner, 
whom Curry ranked as an educator with Mann, 



PEABODY AND HIS TRUST 277 

Sears and Wickersham, was chosen at the same 
meeting. Curry maintained a deep interest in this 
institution, and continued President of its Board 
until October 1, 1885, when he resigned the presi- 
dency, though still remaining a Trustee until April 
25, 1893. 

At the ensuing October meeting of the Peabody 
Board, he made his usual report, which contained an 
interesting paragraph concerning those educational 
institutions in Virginia, which derived aid from the 
Fund:— 

Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, under the 
administration of its accomplished president (General 
S. C. Armstrong) is almost an anomaly in educational 
work. Its success has been extraordinary. . . . 

The Normal and Collegiate Institute at Petersburg, — 
the instructors of which are colored, — is well sustained by 
the State, and closed a year of good work. The Legisla- 
ture authorized a State Normal School for Girls, which has 
been located at Farmville. Litigation embarrassed and 
delayed the action of the Trustees. The difficulties being 
removed, the school will soon be opened under the head- 
ship of Hon. W. H. Ruffner. 

A Convention of County Superintendents and four 
Teachers' Institutes have been valuable agencies in stimu- 
lating and directing educational energies. One thousand 
and twenty-eight teachers attended the Institutes, — nearly 
double the number enrolled any single year before. 

Curry's busy life in this period may be appreciated 
by a glimpse at the varied activities in which he was 
engaged, — activities which demanded the constant 
exercise of physical no less than of mental energies. 
First and foremost, he was the General Agent of the 
Peabody Fund, and in the discharge of that office, 



278 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

he had made out of every legislative chamber in the 
South, a new and very vital sort of pulpit from which 
to preach the gospel of training for all people, high 
and low, black and white. He delivered addresses 
during the year 1884 before the legislatures of Vir- 
ginia, Mississippi, Kentucky, Louisiana, and South 
Carolina; and he spoke before a joint committee of 
the Virginia Legislature in favor of a State Normal 
School, and to a House Committee of the United 
States Congress on the subject of Federal aid to 
State education. He was a member of the Board 
of Trustees of Richmond College and of that of the 
Farmville Woman^s College, and was President of 
both of these boards, giving to the discharge of the 
duties incident to the positions he occupied on them 
a full measure of his time, energies and talents. 
His services were constantly in demand, and scarcely 
less constantly given to attending and addressing 
educational and religious conventions and assem- 
blies; and he filled in the spare moments of a life, 
busy to overflowing, with commencement speeches 
at schools, colleges and Universities. The man's 
vitality of mind and body seems almost super-normal 
in the light of his unremitting work. He served on 
the Board of Directors of the Richmond Woollen 
Mills; he taught a Sunday-school class with the un- 
dimmed and undiminished enthusiasm of his earlier 
religious work; he took part in pastors' conferences; 
he married couples; he preached funeral sermons; 
he participated in the work of committees on foreign 
missions, and for aiding the advancement of religion 
and education among the negroes of the Southern 
States. In fine, he was preacher, teacher, man of 
affairs, politician, lecturer, educator and philan- 



PEABODY AND HIS TEUST 279 

thropist at once; and in all the relations of these 
varied pursuits, he left a vivid impress of his per- 
sonahty upon whatever he touched. Of the de- 
mands made upon his physical energies some idea 
may be formed from the statement that, in his 
widely distributed work during the year 1884, he 
travelled altogether a distance of more than seven- 
teen thousand miles. 

A few days after the meeting of the Peabody 
Trustees in October, 1884, he went to Georgia, where 
on the 8th of the month he attended the Centennial 
meeting of the Georgia Baptist Association at the 
town of Washington in that State. During his visit 
to Washington he was a guest at the hospitable home 
of General Robert Toombs, who had been a con- 
spicuous figure in the ante-bellum discussions of 
slavery, state rights and strict construction; and 
after serving as Secretary of State for the Con- 
federacy, and as a general in the army of Northern 
Virginia, had sought England as a place of refuge 
succeeding Appomattox. He had come back to his 
native land after a brief period of exile; but even 
at the time of Curry's visit he was still ''irrecon- 
cilable" in his refusal to take the oath of allegiance 
to the Federal government. 

In Curry's diary of the time of this visit to Georgia, 
we find the brief exhibition of a reminiscent and 
tender mood: — 

Saturday, October 11. — Left for Lincoln County in a 
buggy. Night at Jesse Cartledge's, where I was born. 

Sunday, October 12. — Talked to Sunday school, and 
preached at Double Branches, where I heard my first ser- 
mon. 



280 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

In early January of the following year he was in 
Washington, D. C, working for the passage of the 
Blair bill by the Federal Congress. In the latter 
days of March he was again in Washington: — 

March 27. — To Washington and back. 

Saw Secretaries Lamar and Garland, Assistant Secre- 
tary Porter, and Gen. Eaton and Atkins. Lamar asked if 
I would accept place of head of Bureau of Education, and 
I replied in the negative. 

Early in May he was the recipient of a letter from 
President Hayes inviting him to confer with the 
Slater Board. 

In response to this invitation he went to New 
York; and his diary under date of May 20, 1885, 
contains the following: — 

Attended by invitation the annual meeting of the Trus- 
tees of the Slater Fund, to confer as to the policy of the 
Board. 

Talked an hour or more, giving my opinion, and answer- 
ing questions. 

Dined at the University Club. Present, M. K. Jesup, 
host; President Hayes; Chief Justice M. R. Waite; D. C. 
Gilman, President of Johns Hopkins; J. A. Stewart; W. E. 
Dodge; Dr. A. G. Haygood; Hon. G. J. Orr of Georgia. 

"In the autumn of 1885," he writes, '*I was in South- 
west Virginia and East Tennessee, attending associations 
and making speeches in behalf of Education, Missions, &c. 
During my absence Mrs. Curry received a letter from 
Hon. Thos. F. Bayard, addressed to me, offering in behalf 
of President Cleveland the position of Envoy Extraordi- 
nary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Spain. For some 
days neither letter nor telegram could reach me. Finally 
at Rogersville, Tennessee, the unexpected news reached 
me, and I took the first train for Asheville to join Mrs. 



PEABODY AND HIS TRUST 281 

Curry and discuss the question of acceptance. After two 
visits to Washington, I saw Mr. Bayard and the President 
and accepted the position; but concluded to have no publi- 
cation thereof until after the meeting of the Peabody 
Trustees, which was to occur soon in October." 

On October 1, 1885, Curry resigned his position 
as President of the Board of Trustees of the Woman's 
Normal College at Farmville, retaining, however, 
his office of Trustee until April 25, 1893. Six days 
later he submitted his annual report to the Peabody 
Board, at their regular meeting in New York City. 
After reading the report, he presented to the Board 
the following communication: — 

Richmond, Va., Oct. 7, 1885. 
To the Trustees of the Peabody Education Fund: 

Having consented to accept from the Government an 
important diplomatic trust, I must ask you not to renew 
my appointment as General Agent, unless it be for a very 
brief period, so as to prevent any confusion from a too 
sudden severance of the connection which I hold with the 
Fund. 

In closing a relation, which to me has been uninter- 
ruptedly pleasant, you will pardon me for expressing my 
most grateful appreciation of the confidence and of the 
personal regard with which you have honored me. From 
the honored Chairman and every Trustee, I have had only 
kindness and generous support. The performance of my 
duties, not easy as I interpreted them, has been a labor of 
love. Mr. Peabody was the most liberal benefactor the 
South ever had, and his benefaction came at a time when 
she was in the depth of poverty and anguish. Education 
being necessary to material advancement, and in every 
mental and moral relation, his munificence took most 
wisely the direction of aiding in the education of the youth 
of both races. The initial effort of the Trustees was to stim- 



282 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

ulate the establishment of pubhc school systems, and after- 
wards to insure their permanency and constant improve- 
ment. As a factor in the production of these accomplished 
results, no single agency has been so potent and beneficial 
as the Peabody Education Fund. The next and correlated 
step was to labor for the improvement of the teaching in 
the public schools. This has been effected in a marked 
degree by sustaining Teachers' Institutes and Normal 
Schools. The States are gradually incorporating into their 
school systems, and sustaining by annual grants, these 
most effective instrumentalities for the improvement of 
those systems. The Normal College at Nashville has 
emerged from the difficulties which five years ago im- 
perilled its life, and now, with the cordial co-operation of 
Tennessee, is vindicating its right to a place among the 
best institutions of its kind in the United States. 

Instead of confining myself to office work, — to the hum- 
ble but useful avocation of almoner for the distribution of 
the income of the Fund, — I have sought to do something 
towards the creation of a healthier educational sentiment, 
and to identify the Trust with the most advanced educa- 
tional progress. Every door of access to the people, — to 
schools, colleges, legislatures, — has been thrown wide open 
to your representative, and if good has not been done, the 
fault is his. Everywhere I have advocated the upHfting 
of the lately emancipated and enfranchised negro, and 
upon no part of my work do I look back with greater per- 
sonal satisfaction. 

In the spirit of the Trust, and in known harmony with 
the opinions of Mr. Peabody, I have labored assiduously 
to renew and cultivate a feeling of broad and catholic patri- 
otism, to cement in closest fraternity all sections and peo- 
ples of the Union, to bury discords and strifes, and to lift 
up to a higher plane than that of sectional animosity or of 
angry prejudices. To-day, thank God, the South is as 
loyal to the Union, and as ready to pour out blood and 



PEABODY AND HIS TRUST 283 

treasure for the national honor and national safety as 
Ohio or Massachusetts. 

What has been achieved in the States which are the bene- 
ficiaries of the Trust, since you organized as a Board in 
Washington City, on the 8th of February, 1867, is incredi- 
ble. There have been revolutions in labor, economic in- 
dustries, customs, traditions, feelings, convictions, laws 
and institutions, any one of which considered singly would 
mark a social era, a civil epoch. No people ever accom- 
pHshed so much for education, in so brief a period, under 
such crushing embarrassments, as the South has done. If 
the General Government, heeding the earnest words and 
the unanswerable arguments of this Board, will come to 
the relief of States struggling with heroic energy to meet 
the responsibilities of their new life, problems of gigantic 
import will be aided in their solution, and the faith and 
the hope of the patriot and the Christian will be strength- 
ened in reference to the success and the perpetuity of the 
Republic. 

The policy of your Board is so well established, and the 
method of administration has been so simplified, that my 
withdrawal will put you to no inconvenience. 

Thanking you for your numerous kindnesses, and wish- 
ing great success to the work of the Fund, I am, 
Yours most respectfully, 

J. L. M. Curry. 

On motion of Mr. Evarts, this communication of 
Curry's, which sets forth in perspicuous summary 
the purposes and achievements of the Peabody 
Trustees on the one hand, and the methods, aims 
and aspirations that had animated himself on the 
other, was referred to the Executive Committee of 
the Board for consideration. Mr. Winthrop, for 
the Executive Committee, on the next day submitted 



284 J. L. M. CUEEY, A BIOGEAPHY 

the following resolutions, which were unanimously 
adopted by the Board: — 

Resolved, That the Trustees of the Peabody Education 
Fund have received with sincere regret the announcement 
of Dr. Curry, that, having accepted the appointment of 
United States Minister to Madrid, he must decline a re- 
election as the General Agent of this Trust; that the Trus- 
tees desire to enter on their records the deep sense which 
they entertain of the fidelity and devotion with which he 
has discharged his duties for more than four years past, 
and of the great success which has attended his labors; — 
and that the grateful regards of the Trustees will follow 
him into his new sphere of public service, with their best 
wishes for his health and happiness. 

Resolved, That the appointment of a General Agent be 
postponed for consideration until the next meeting of the 
Board, with authority to the Executive Committee, in the 
meantime, to make such temporary arrangements for the 
conduct of the General Agency as they may find necessary. 

Curry was requested to continue to act as General 
Agent until his departure for Spain; and Dr. S. A. 
Green, the Secretary of the Board, was requested 
and authorized to serve temporarily as General 
Agent in Curry ^s absence. 

It is interesting to note that at this meeting Pres- 
ident Cleveland and Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan were 
elected to membership on the Board of Trustees. 
Mr. Morgan was chosen Treasurer and held that 
office uninterruptedly thereafter. For four years 
Curry had been engaged in the most fruitful work 
offered to any man in Southern life. The paralysis 
of war had at last passed away and hope everywhere 
reigned. He had a country which he ^^ could love^' 
and which he was about to represent in a foreign 



PEABODY AND HIS TRUST 285 

land. This service, distinguished and agreeable as 
it was, must be considered as a mere interlude in 
the man's essential career. The Peabody Trustees 
perceived this and kept his work waiting for him. 
The great preacher had found his ultimate pulpit 
in the schoolhouses and legislative chambers of 
eleven States awakening to a new national life. 
His general theme was an efficient citizenship in a 
reunited republic. He perceived the real menace 
of the ignorant negro. He saw the necessity of 
industrial preparation. He felt the need on the 
white man's part of the philosophic view and the 
sense of obligation. He had faith in the justice and 
good sense of the people, and he knew their sturdy 
power. His appeal was to the heart and his method 
the method of the orator. Looked at in the clear 
light of another generation, the group of men who 
preceded and were now gathered about Curry, as 
he began his notable work, was worthy of such a 
period in our educational history. Samuel Chapman 
Armstrong, a young man of original genius and con- 
secration, schooled under Mark Hopkins, was be- 
ginning, on the shores of Hampton Roads, a revo- 
lutionary movement for negro education destined 
to pour into that misguided work a stream of com- 
mon sense and high purpose which has served to 
steady and direct it until this day. He saw that the 
first necessity was a military government of these 
negro youth, practically and morally let loose into 
infinite space. Then must follow a training, all 
the way up, in work, the boys or girls being expected 
to furnish to a considerable extent the means for their 
schooling and support. The schooling must be co- 
educational, that the educated colored boy could 



286 J. L. M. CUEEY, A BIOGRAPHY 

have for his wife an educated colored girl. The 
religious education should be Christian in the broad 
sense that it left the worship of creed and ecclesiasti- 
cal polity out of account. As soon as possible the 
school at Hampton was set free from dependence 
on any association and organized under a board of 
directors. He also understood that any system of 
schooling of the colored people, to be effective and 
permanent, while it might depend largely on the 
North for pecuniary support, must commend itself 
to the common school public of the Southern State 
in which it was set up. Thus he persuaded the 
Legislature of Virginia to appropriate $10,000 an- 
nually of its national industrial school fund, with 
the superintendent of public instruction and other 
gentlemen of the State as advisory trustees. He 
left the classical upper story out of his system of 
instruction, organizing the school as far as possible 
according to the methods of the best primary and 
secondary graded schools of the day. The normal 
training of the superior students was at once estab- 
lished, under competent management, in connection 
with the practice department, the Butler common 
school, afterwards named the Whittier. 

William H. Ruffner, a young Presbyterian clergy- 
man and scientist, as first State Superintendent of 
Public Instruction in Virginia, was planting the 
American Common School upon a philosophic basis, 
from which it could never be dislodged in the statutes 
and affections of the Commonwealth of Virginia. 
Men like John Eaton, Edward S. Joynes, Wilham 
Preston Johnston, Calvin H. Wiley, Atticus G. Hay- 
good, were striking hands with Armstrong, Sears 
and others of their kind in Northern life and develop- 



PEABODY AND HIS TEUST 287 

ing a cause and a quality of leadership to which the 
best of the younger generation could repair. The 
home of the late President of the Southern Confed- 
acy had been reconstructed into a pubUc school- 
house, and as a background of infinite dignity and 
inspiration to the whole idea had stood the example 
of Lee quietly at work, reorganizing the old Wash- 
ington College into the institution which should also 
bear his honored name. 



CHAPTER XVI 

THE LAND OF THE ALHAMBRA 

Curry's invitation to represent the United States 
Government at Madrid came in a flattering way, 
and all the circumstances of his designation to one 
of the foremost offices in the foreign service were well 
calculated to arouse the recipient's interest and to 
kindle his enthusiasm. 

Mr. Bayard, the Secretary of State, wrote to him 
as follows: — 

Depaetment of State, 
Washington, Sept. 7, 1885. 
Personal and Confidential. 

My dear Sir : — I wish to enlist you in the public service, 
and believe that an opportunity for high usefulness is open 
to you, in which it may be in your power to render impor- 
tant service to our country. 

The mission to Spain is now vacant, and I consider that 
point in our foreign relations as second in importance to 
none. 

Nothing could exhibit to you my personal trust and 
confidence in your character and capacity more than this 
expression of my wish to see you the representative of the 
United States at Madrid. If you wish to consult with me 
before accepting the trust, let me hear from you, — and see 
you here. 

I can give you a room in my house (1413 Massachusetts 
Avenue), where we can have free conference. 

Sincerely yours, 

T. F. Bayard. 
288 



THE LAND OF THE ALHAMBEA 289 

Upon learning of the tender of the Spanish Mis- 
sion, Curry's mind turned at once to his friend, Mr. 
Winthrop. From the httle town in East Tennessee, 
where the news reached him, he wrote at once to the 
venerable President of the Peabody Board. 

ROGERSVILLE, TenN., 

Confidential. 14 Sept., '85. 

Dear Mr. Winthrop: — 

For nearly a week I have been near " Cumberland Gap," 
remote from railways and telegraph. Arriving here a few 
minutes ago, I find a letter and a mailed telegram from 
Mrs. Curry, startling me with the announcement that 
President Cleveland tenders me the Mission to Spain. 
The tender was suggested, of course, by no solicitation of 
mine. It is a surprise. In my confusion, I turn to you as 
my most valued and trusted friend. What shall I do? I 
rather suspect Mrs. Curry would not be unwilling to spend 
a year or two abroad. My Peabody work out of the way, 
I should not be unwilling to go to Italy or Austria; but I 
love the Peabody work; I am under obHgation to the Trus- 
tees; and I value, as the most prized and pleasant of all 
earth's gifts, wife and children excepted, your friendship 
and my labor with you. Pardon me for the utterance, but 
I love you as I have never loved any man outside my 
father's family; and I can consent to do nothing to which 
you object. Help me in the dilemma. I know nothing be- 
yond what I have written, save that I am summoned to 
Washington. I shall reach Asheville to-morrow, and may 
leave for Washington on the 16th. 

Ever yours sincerely, 

J. L. M. Curry. 

Hon. Robt. C. Winthrop, 

Brookline, Mass. 

The effect of this letter of Curry's upon Mr. 
Winthrop may be best shown by the latter's reply, 



290 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

evidently written upon the day of its receipt, and 
illustrated with a scriptural text of which the com- 
munication itself is an exposition. 

For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and 
that which I was afraid of is come unto me (Job 3:25). 

Brookline, Mass'tts., 

16 Sept., 1885. 
My Dear Dr. Curry: — 

Your "confidential" letter of the 14th inst., from Rog- 
ersville, Tenn., has just reached me, and has filled me with 
consternation. I had written to you at Asheville yester- 
day, after examining the proofs of your Report, and my 
soul was at ease. I looked forward to our approaching 
meeting at New York with confidence, and felt that our 
Peabody work was secure for a long future. I felt, too, 
that take it all in all, it was the greatest work of our time 
and land, and that the names of good Dr. Sears and your- 
self would go down to posterity embalmed by the memory 
of the highest services to the South and the whole country. 

The idea of losing you from our labors came strongly 
upon me, when the new Administration first came in. And 
if our friend Bayard had at once offered you a first-class 
mission, I should at least have acquiesced in its being de- 
servedly assigned. The text which I have written at the 
top of this letter was then often in my mind. But as one 
after another of the foreign appointments was filled by 
men inferior to yourself, and as your own assurances of 
unfailing devotion to our work were renewed to me by 
letter and by lip, I had abandoned all apprehensions, and 
had looked forward to being lovingly associated with you 
in the cause of Southern Education for the little remnant 
of my own life. 

I do not wonder that Bayard has been tempted to pluck 
you from our hand. But for him to propose to plump you 
and dear Mrs. Curry down into the midst of a raging 
cholera at Madrid, is certainly of doubtful kindness. 



THE LAND OF THE ALHAMBRA 291 

Were there a great exigency there, you would not shrink 
from such a service at any risk, I well know. But is there 
anything to be done at Madrid, which can be compared in 
importance to the work you are now doing so admirably 
and so effectively at home? Will any honor ever attach 
to your name, by a service at Madrid, in any degree com- 
parable to that which you have won and are winning in 
your present sphere? 

But all this is aside from the real issue, to which I hasten 
to turn. It is in no spirit of flattery or compliment that I 
say, that you are the very pivot of George Peabody's great 
Southern benefaction. All its success turns upon you. 
To take you from your post at this moment, would be like 
taking the pilot of the '^ Puritan" away, when she was just 
on the starting Hne. The American cup would go to the 
'^Genesta." Seriously, I am afraid your withdrawal from 
our work, so suddenly and at such short notice, would not 
only embarrass and perplex us terribly, but would awaken 
feelings in our Board which would afflict me. 

Were such a separation six months off, — so that there 
would be time for deliberation, — sad as the prospect would 
be to me, it would be less appalling. When good Dr. Sears 
died, I was able, with the aid of his daughter, to carry our 
work along for many months. But I am older and feebler 
now, and should not know where to turn. Our Board, too, 
is in a crippled condition, — three vacancies to be filled next 
month, and several of those who are left suffering from old 
age and infirmities. 

I write frankly, as you would have me, and from the 
fullness of my heart. But I should do injustice to the vital 
importance of your services as our General Agent, if I did 
not say that your withdrawal would be an irreparable 
loss. Should that loss really befall us, and your place be 
supplied by some pressing Northern candidate, the South 
would be disquieted. But your place could not be filled in 
the estimation of either South or North. 

I fully appreciate your wife's natural disposition to 



292 J. L. M. CUEEY, A BIOGEAPHY 

spend a few years abroad as an Ambassadress. I am afraid 
I shall be out of her good graces, which would be a great 
grief to me, by writing as I have. But better things than 
Madrid may turn up for both of you one of these days. 
She would not like to have it said hereafter that the cause 
of Southern Education had been brought to a stand, and 
the Peabody Fund plunged into confusion, by her hus- 
band's acceptance of a Mission abroad. 

Forgive my strong expressions. I write off-hand, and 
take no copy of my letter. Let me thank you, however, 
as I do sincerely, for your warm and affectionate personal 
expressions, which I heartily reciprocate. One of my main 
obligations to George Peabody is that his Trust brought 
me into such intimate relations with Dr. Sears and your- 
self. And let me not conclude without assuring you, that 
however you may decide this question, my own regard 
and affection for you and Mrs. Curry cannot be changed. 
Ever sincerely. 

Your friend, 

ROBT. C. WiNTHROP. 

Hon. J. L. M. Curry, LL.D. 

On the 23rd of September, Curry wrote to Mr. 
Winthrop : — 

After a most painful conflict between dual duties, the 
decision has been made and the Government has been no- 
tified that the mission will be accepted. If I had been re- 
quired to go abroad at once, a sense of obhgation to the 
Peabody Fund would have precluded any consideration 
of the tender made, however honorable. Time is allowed 
for the selection of a successor, and to enable me by cor- 
respondence, or personal interviews, to acquaint him with 
our principles and methods of administration, and the 
personnel with whom the Fund must co-operate. 

And Mr. Winthrop, while Curry was penning the 
letter containing this announcement, had already 



THE LAND OF THE ALHAMBRA 293 

overcome his first feelings of disappointment, and 
under the same date was writing to him thus: — 

While I cannot abate a jot or tittle of what I have here- 
tofore said about your importance to our Trust, I feel less 
anxious than I did at first about our ability to carry along 
the Peabody work after a fashion, without serious injury 
to the cause, or any great strain upon myself. 

After the adjournment of the Peabody Board in 
New York on October 6, 1883, Curry proceeded at 
once to Boston, to call on Mr. Lowell, who had been 
appointed to Madrid by President Hayes, in 1877, 
and transferred thence to the court of St. James in 
1880. 

I visited Hon. James Russell Lowell in Boston," he 
writes, ''and lunched with him. He was courteous and 
kind . . . and gave me valuable suggestions, the re- 
sult of his own diplomatic experience in Madrid. One re- 
mark he made surprised me. He said he had much diffi- 
culty in convincing government and the best people that 
an American Minister could be a gentleman. 

A few years later in response to a request for his 
portrait Mr. Lowell writes in this strain to his suc- 
cessor : 

Deerfoot Farm, Southborough, 

11th Jan., 1887. 
Dear Sir: 

Immediately after receiving your very kind letter of 
the 24th Nov., I gave directions that an engraved portrait 
of me should be sent to you through the Department of 
State. I hope that it will already have reached you. It 
is thought to be a pretty fair likeness. 

I am very glad you liked my address at the Harvard 
Centenary. It was a very pleasant affair and everything 



294 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

went off smothly and successfully. The audience, 
especially that part of it on the platform, was a very 
remarkable one, the preponderance of gray and even 
white heads being remarkable. It was observed that 
nearly all those who had an active share in the ceremonies 
were much older than those who performed similar func- 
tions at the last celebration in 1836. The chief marshal 
of the day had been one of the marshals fifty years before, 
the poet was a graduate of fifty-seven years' standing, 
the orator of forty-eight, the President of the day of 
forty-eight, and so on. Is this a sign that we begin later 
than we used? At any rate it is encouraging for us 
veterans. 

Matters are going on very quietly here. The Admin- 
istration of President Cleveland is establishing itself in 
the confidence of the people and I think you may look 
forward to eight years' service at your post. I hope you 
find it agreeable. I was entirely contented there. I liked 
the Spaniards and continue to like them. I am sorry 
that I cannot ask to be remembered to Mrs. Curry, but 
I beg that you give my best respects to her. 

Faithfully yours, 

J. R. Lowell. 

Later in the month Curry went again to Wash- 
ington. 

**0n 13th October," he continues, "I took the oath of 
office and received my commission, and then spent some 
days in the Department, reviewing correspondence, and 
familiarizing myself with duties and pending questions. 
I dined with Mr. Bayard and the Spanish Minister, Senor 
Valera and Mr. Foster, our late Minister to Spain, who 
was very kind and useful to me. Governor Porter and 
Mr. Adee, Assistant Secretaries of State, were guests also. 
Numerous congratulatory telegrams and letters were 
received, and the citizens of Richmond offered me a 
banquet," 



THE LAND OF THE ALHAMBRA 295 

Among these telegrams and letters was one so 
out of the usual character of such messages, that it 
will bear insertion here. 

The Rock Islander, 

First Established in 1854. 
J. B. Danforth, Editor. 

Rock Island, Ills., Oct. 8, 1885. 
Dear Sir: — 

To-day, when I saw in telegrams your appointment as 
Minister to Spain, I remembered a letter you wrote me in 
January, 1860; and I took it from a file of valuables, and 
re-read it. I was then trying to persuade you and C. C. 
Clay and Gov. McRea, and I don't know how many more, 
not to talk about secession, for it would beat us in the fall 
of that year. I always admired your spirited letter. I 
have used it several times in speeches, to show that the 
South was in earnest, and that secession and war were in- 
evitable. I never pubhshed it, and don't propose to now, 
for it would make Rome howl. 

I am very glad to hear of you again. I was afraid you 
had passed from earth. I congratulate you on the appoint- 
ment, for I know you will creditably represent the whole 
country. May you live long and prosper. 

Very truly yours, 

J. B. Danforth. 
Hon. J. L. M. Curry, 
Richmond, Va. 

On November 5, 1885, after a series of social enter- 
tainments given in his honor by gentlemen of dis- 
tinction and prominence in Washington and in 
Richmond, Curry set sail from New York, accom- 
panied by Mrs. Curry, on the steamer ''Germanic." 
They stopped successively in London and Paris, 
long enough to be entertained by the American 
Ministers, Messrs. Phelps and McLane; and in the 



296 J. L. M. CUERY, A BIOGRAPHY 

latter city, Mrs. Curry tarried for a month; while 
her husband went on to Spain, and reached Madrid 
on the morning of the 25th of November. 

The coming of the new American Minister to the 
scene of his latest labors was contemporaneous with 
the departure from earth of the Spanish King. On 
the morning of Curry's arrival, he was met at the 
railroad station by Mr. Strobel, the American 
Secretary of Legation, and escorted to his hotel. 
At 9 o'clock of the same day, his Majesty King 
Alfonso the Third departed this life; and with the 
note of this melancholy incident, Curry records in 
his diary the coincidence of the death that day of 
Thomas A. Hendricks, Vice-president of the United 
States. 

On December 1st the new Minister had an un- 
official interview with Sigismund Moret, the Spanish 
Minister of State, at his office in the palace. It 
appears that the death of the King invalidated 
Curry's credentials as Minister; and accordingly 
he was compelled to wait until others could be sent 
from Washington, before he might be formally pre- 
sented to the Queen Regent. On the 3rd day of the 
month, however, he received a cablegram from his 
government at home, constituting him a special 
envoy to represent the United States at the King's 
funeral. 

Although in his usual personal attire Curry always 
exhibited a marked neatness, and a due regard for 
the mandates of fashion in the cut and texture of 
his garments, he was in no sense an exquisite, or 
inclined to any sort of personal display. Yet some 
sense of incongruity seems to have taken possession 
of him, as it has been known to possess other Ameri- 



THE LAND OF THE ALHAMBRA 297 

can representatives in European Courts upon State 
occasions, in being compelled to appear at any hour 
of the day in clothes, which ordinarily are worn in 
good society the world over only in the evening. In 
a letter written to Mr. Winthrop on December 6, 
he remarks, at some length, upon his embarrassment 
at the ^'conspicuous pecuharity" of having to appear 
in ^'a dress-coat ^^ at the King's approaching funeral, 
when all other diplomats of similar rank with his 
own would be arrayed in appropriate and imposing 
costumes, with their insignia and decorations. 
Mr. Winthrop's reply is amusing: — 

I am afraid I could not have helped you much in regard 
to your Court costume. I was presented to Queen Vic- 
toria in 1847, in full diplomatic uniform, while Bancroft 
was Minister and Polk President. In 1860 I went to Court 
again with Mr. Dallas, in black evening dress, but with 
breeches or shorts, and with a civil sword and chapeau. 
In 1867 I went again in my old diplomatic uniform, with 
Mr. Adams, who insisted on wearing a uniform like that 
of his father and grandfather. I suppose you have some 
instructions on the subject. It is rather a pity that the 
Ministers of the United States should be compelled to dress 
like the waiters. 

Curry has recorded at some length the details of 
his first reception by the Queen Regent, which took 
place on the 11th of December; and of the King's 
funeral on the day following: — 

"On that day" (December 11) ''at 3.30 p. m., Mr. 
Strobel and I repaired to the palace, and I was presented 
by Senor Moret, in order to convey to the Queen the sen- 
timents of the President in reference to the death of the 
King, and as preparatory to taking part in the funeral 
ceremonies. 



298 J. L. M. CUERY, A BIOaRAPHY 

''This was my first interview with Royalty, except a 
presentation at the Quirinal in 1876, when we had the 
honor at a State ball of being presented to Humbert and 
Christina, who afterwards became King and Queen of 
Italy. 

''The Queen, in deep mourning, was dignified and cour- 
teous and graceful, and was evidently affected by the ex- 
pressions of the little address which I made to her in be- 
half of my country. 

"On the succeeding day occurred at the Church of St. 
Sebastian, with great pomp and display, the funeral of the 
deceased King. The house was packed. Seats were as- 
signed to, and reserved for the diplomatic corps and the 
dignitaries. All the governments of Europe had author- 
ized Special Ambassadors, who, with the Cabinet and some 
others, had seats of honor in the choir. Being a Special 
Envoy, equivalent to an Ambassador, I was honored with 
a seat behind the 'elect few'; and being just behind the 
Papal Nuncio, Cardinal Rampolla, I watched him, and 
was thus able to go through the various 'risings and sit- 
tings,' which were frequent, and without such experienced 
guidance, would have been embarrassing. The Diplo- 
matic Corps, sat below the choir, as did various other offi- 
cials and especially invited guests. All were in their 
gorgeous uniforms and decorations except the representa- 
tives of the United States; and we, restrained by the 
absurd instructions of our Government, wore the dress- 
suit of a head-waiter in a hotel. The Archbishop of Valla- 
dolid, Exc'mo Sr. D. Benito Sanz y Fores, preached 
the funeral oration; and the magnificent tenor singer, 
Guyarez, sang at length, and with a profound impres- 
sion. 

"On the same day, as diplomatic etiquette required, I 
had an audience, arrangements as to time having previ- 
ously been made, of Infanta Isabel, sister of Alfonso, and 
of Isabella, the Queen Mother, who had been dethroned in 
1868." 



THE LAND OF THE ALHAMBRA 299 

The question of a proper court costume appears to ' 
have been for a long time before Curry^s mission a 
more or less burning one with American Ministers 
abroad. When Mr. Buchanan went as Minister to 
St. James, Secretary of State Marcy had just issued 
an order that American Ministers abroad should 
appear at public functions in the plain and simple 
costume of an American citizen. The effect of this 
order on some of the European Courts is said to 
have been remarkable. The British press appears 
to have discussed it; and the story is told that, just 
before the meeting of Parliament, Mr. Buchanan 
received from the master of ceremonies a printed 
paper to the effect that no one would be admitted 
to the diplomatic gallery or to the body of either 
house who did not wear a court costume. The 
American Minister thereupon stayed away, although 
the London Times reported him as attending and 
feeling uncomfortable and conspicuous in his plain 
clothes. When it became necessary for him to ap- 
pear at Court, however, he followed his government's 
instructions, adding to his ^^ evening clothes" a plain 
black-hilted sword; and it is related of him that 
Mr. Buchanan said afterwards that he never was 
prouder of his country than he was as he stood there, 
the most simply dressed person in the room, amid the 
uniforms and decorations of all the Courts of Europe. j 

On the 22nd of December, Curry presented his 
credential letter to Her Majesty, and was received 
as the Minister Plenipotentiary and Envoy Extraor- 
dinary of the United States. On the occasion of its 
presentation he delivered to the Queen a formal ad- 
dress, which had been prepared in advance and sub- 
mitted, according to custom, to the Spanish Minister 



300 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

of State for approval; and to which the Queen made 
a gracious and pleasant though brief reply. Later 
he made calls, as the Court etiquette required, upon 
Sagasta, President of the Council of Ministers, and 
upon Moret, the Minister of State; and on the day- 
following, he visited in succession the remaining 
members of the Cabinet, and his colleagues of the 
Diplomatic Corps, according to the custom which 
requires the latest comer to make the first calls. 

All the ceremonial requirements of an ancient and 
punctilious Court were rigidly observed by the new 
American Minister. On New Year's Day, 1886, in 
company with the whole Diplomatic Corps, he paid 
a visit of condolence to the Queen Regent, and the 
Infanta Isabella; and a few days after, with Mrs. 
Curry, he called in a less formal way upon the same 
royal personages. 

With a ready inteUigence that foreign diplomacy 
carries with it in eminent degree the requirements 
of social obligation, Curry and his wife began soon 
thereafter a series of afternoon receptions, which 
were continued with increasing popularity during 
the period of their sojourn at the Spanish Court. 
Frequent dinners were given, in return for like civil- 
ities, and to promote international good feeling; 
and to these functions were invited the Diplomatic 
Corps, members of the government, officers of the 
army and navy, members of the nobility, English 
and American visitors, and the elite of the old 
Spanish families of Madrid. The good taste and 
charm of these entertainments soon attracted public 
attention; and the newspapers of the Capitol were 
lavish in the praise which they bestowed upon their 
distinction. 



THE LAND OF THE ALHAMBBA 301 

''The American Legation," commented El Resumen, in 
an article which was characteristic of many others that 
appeared in the Spanish press of the period, ''is undoubt- 
edly one of the most hospitable in Madrid. Mr. Curry and 
his beautiful and distinguished wife sustain worthily in the 
Spanish Capital the standard of the rich and powerful 
American Republic. In addition to their Monday recep- 
tions, they have inaugurated a series of sumptuous ban- 
quets on Thursdays. . . . 

"Mr. Curry employs his diplomatic leisure in writing a 
work on the Constitutions which have been used in Spain 
since the estabhshment of the Parliamentary regime." 

. It was a season of no small personal pleasure and 
enjojTiient to the Currys; and of it, Curry wrote a 
short time before his death: — 

Even now, twelve and fourteen years after, a war with 
bitterness and humiliating results intervening, we catch 
echoes of pleasant remembrances of those enjoyable events. 

Of this social side of his career Curry writes to 
Mr. Winthrop in Boston, after a year's experience, 
as follows: — 

Madrid, 28 Dec, 1886. 
Dear Mr. Winthrop: — 

. . . In a former letter, I think I mentioned our for- 
mal or State dinners, which bring us into pleasant social 
intercourse with leading men and women. I do not share 
in his political opinions, but no statesman here has im- 
pressed me as much as Canovas. He has firmness, cour- 
age, intelligence, political experience, breadth of view and 
much wit. He talks at a dinner-table exceedingly well, 
but both he and Castelar monopoHze the "talk." Cano- 
vas, speaking of Castelar's well-known and inoffensive 
vanity, and peacockish display, said of him, that he never 
saw a marriage without wishing to be the bride, nor a 
funeral without wishing to be the corpse. 



302 J. L. M. CUREY, A BIOGRAPHY 

In addition to dinners, Mrs. Curry has receptions every 
Monday from 5 to 7; and these re-unions are so popular 
that her salons are crowded with the best and most no- 
table people of Madrid. This winter's experience is in 
most pleasant contrast with the last; and has increased — 
decreased, rather, the discomforts of Madrid life, and 
much enhanced my ability and opportunities for useful- 
ness. I beg you to believe me that my desire to benefit 
our country, and to show that an ex-Confederate can be 
entrusted with the honor and welfare of the Country, are 
the highest motives of action. . . . 

Yours faithfully, 
J. L. M. Curry. 
Hon. Robert C. Winthrop, 
Boston, Mass. 

During the first year of Curry ^s service at Madrid, 
an event of unusual interest occurred in the post- 
humous birth of the heir to the throne of the King, 
whose death had taken place on the day of the 
Minister's arrival. 

*'0n 28 April," he writes, "I received an invitation, sent 
to the diplomatic corps, based on the approaching confine- 
ment of the Queen Regent, with a request to be present at 
'la ceremonia de la presentacion del Rey y Infanta.' 

"On the first of May I received an official notification, 
more formal and urgent, from the Introducer of Ambassa- 
dors, and from the ' Mayordomia de S.M. . . . ' invit- 
ing me to ' assista a Palacio al acto de la presentacion del 
Rey y Infanta que S.M. diere a luz.' Four days afterwards 
Mary and I met the Queen Regent and the Infanta Eula- 
lia driving in a low, two-seated carriage. On Monday, the 
17th of May, about sunrise, a messenger from the Palace 
came in post haste to summon my immediate attendance. 
Omitting all signs of mourning, with which all officials were 
bedecked since the death of the King, I went to the Palace 



THE LAND OF THE ALHAMBRA 303 

and found some of the diplomatic corps (others came later) 
and government officials, in full uniform, with cocked hats, 
swords, gold bands, and all the decorations to which they 
were entitled. The Cabinet, officially arrayed, and a num- 
ber of distinguished officers and civilians were there, or ar- 
rived afterwards. 

^' We waited half or three-quarters of an hour, when the 
Cabinet was called. Soon the President, Sefior Sagasta, 
returned, and standing at the door, proclaimed in Spanish, 
' Long live the King ! ' This announced the birth and sex 
of him, who, so far as I know, was the first human being 
ever born a King. 

"Passing at once through a suite of rooms, we were 
halted next to the chamber of the Queen. Arranging our- 
selves in a semicircle, and waiting for what might occur, 
a lady, one of the Queen's waiting-women, came out, hold- 
ing in her hands a beautiful silver basket, or waiter. In 
this, enveloped in soft cotton, was the new-born babe. His 
Royal Highness, Prince of Asturias, King of Spain. The 
babe was passed around, in puris naturalihus, for our in- 
spection; but I did not see the divinity which hedges in a 
King. He soon proved his common humanity by crying, 
and was withdrawn to be clothed. This ceremony, once 
so common, to prevent imposition of false heirs, is peculiar 
to Spain; and I am one of the few now living who 'assisted' 
at such a function. The birth was soon made known by 
firing of cannon, ringing of bells, and noisy, tumultuous 
demonstrations on the streets. . . . 

''On the 22nd the baptism of the babe was performed 
in the royal chapel in the Palace, and was a splendid cere- 
monial. Invitations were sent us; and they prescribed the 
dress for both men and women. The rigor of the rule about 
mourning had been relaxed since the advent of the royal 
monarch, and the eagerness of the ladies, even the sisters 
of the late King, to throw aside the sombre black, showed 
that mourning for a conventional time was irksome and 
tended to degenerate into mere formalities. 



304 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

''Just before one o'clock, we drove to the Palace. The 
square and surrounding streets were thronged with eager 
and curious people. We entered by the grand staircase, 
one of the most magnificent in Europe, which was lined by 
officers and soldiers richly dressed. A spacious corridor 
surrounds and overlooks the interior court or plaza. This 
was decorated with abundant and beautiful tapestry, 
while the floor was richly carpeted. To reach the chapel it 
was necessary to make the circuit of full half of the corri- 
dor. The whole distance was lined with people, four or 
five rows in depth; but the Civil Guard kept an open 
avenue, wide enough for the gorgeously dressed favored 
few, who had access to the chapel. 

''While marching through the avenue, the Introducer 
of Ambassadors met us, and offering his arm to Mrs. 
Curry, conducted her to the tribune which had been 
erected and upholstered in the chapel for the diplomatic 
corps. It was with much personal and national pride that 
an American saw the female representative of his country 
encountering with such calmness the battery of a thousand 
eyes; for, as her train swept gracefully behind, she was the 
cynosure of universal admiration, and elicited a thousand 
compliments. She wore a white satin dress, a point lace 
overdress looped with feathers, a white satin train lined 
with green velvet, and trimmed with sable, a point-lace 
mantilla, white feathers, a diamond aigrette, emeralds in 
hair and a diamond brooch in front. 

"The royal chapel, not very large, was fitted up with 
splendor; and places were so assigned as to prevent un- 
comfortable pressure. Men and women, titled and un- 
titled, were arrayed in silks and satins, in silver and gold 
and gems and jewels. The clergy were much en evidence, 
and all departments of the Government had their chosen 
representatives. The magnificence was unparalleled. The 
royal babe, gorgeously dressed, preceded by civil and ec- 
clesiastical dignitaries, was brought in by Infanta Isabel, 
aided or attended by the Papal Nuncio, Cardinal Ram- 



THE LAND OF THE ALHAMBEA 305 

polla, and the first lady of the Court. The little fellow 
screamed lustily, showing his protest against such fuss and 
folly. The 'baptism/ I suppose, was after the usual cere- 
mony of the Church of Rome, emphasized and prolonged 
for the occasion, and the exceptional 'subject.' The Pope, 
through the Nuncio, stood sponsor, or godfather; and the 
whole function consumed an hour and a half. 

'•' . . . The King was christened Alfonso Leon Fer- 
nando Santiago Maria Isidro Pascual y Anton." 

Curry's principal diplomatic efforts at the Spanish 
Court were in the direction of negotiating a com- 
mercial treaty which should free the commerce be- 
tween America and Spain from some of its traditional 
restrictions. Of these efforts and their results he 
wrote to Mr. Winthrop, in July, 1886: — 

The same assumption that you are more than interested 
in us as representatives of the United States will justify 
me in saying that I have had extraordinary, certainly 
unusual, success in my diplomatic negotiations. Two seri- 
ous questions I fell heir to. One of them has perplexed and 
irritated both countries for more than fifty years. Spain 
has very naturally sought to control the trade of her An- 
tillean dependencies. Our nearness to the islands, and the 
market we gave to their products, made us successful com- 
petitors. Hence grew up a war of tariffs. An agreement 
of Feb., 1884, intended by Mr. Foster to remove discrim- 
inations, failed of its object; as the two governments put a 
contrary interpretation upon certain words of the instru- 
ment. Mr. Frelinghuysen and Mr. Bayard gave very em- 
phatic instructions. I have succeeded in getting a Royal 
Order removing the differential flag duty, and conforming 
to the American construction. 

As far back as 1876 Mr. Cushing entered an earnest pro- 
test against some consular fees on tonnage collected in 
American ports. The different Secretaries of State have 



306 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

issued minatory instructions, and all my predecessors have 
wasted much breath, time and paper in a vain effort to get 
a correction of the abuse. Fortunately, by incessant exer- 
tions, demanding all the tact, patience and ability I was 
master of, I have succeeded in getting a suppression of 
what was so obnoxious to my Government. 

These Spaniards are strange people. When you enter a 
house for the first time, everything is placed at your dis- 
position, but the polite compliment means nothing. The 
like offer of everything is carried into diplomacy, and is 
equally meaningless. Patience represents an act or qual- 
ity of looking for justice, or an expected good, without 
murmuring or fretfulness; and that virtue is likely to have 
her perfect work in dealing with high officials, between 
whose premises and performances there is an impassable 
gulf, or the width of weary months and years. 

In a later memorandum Curry writes of his labors 
in behalf of a commercial treaty which should be 
unambiguous in its terms and just to his govern- 
ment : — 

For years by my predecessors and myself, the matter 
was pressed; but nothing more favorable and decisive 
could I accomplish than some slight modifications of 
consular usages and a larger modus vivendi, which remained 
in force until our late unfortunate war. 

But there were other matters of importance be- 
sides the commercial treaty which demanded his 
attention and engaged his efforts; and his account 
of some of them serves to show that his representa- 
tion of the United States as their Minister did not 
mean that his time and attention were devoted only 
to the social side of his mission. 

"Another matter I inherited," he writes, "which gave 
annoyance and trouble. For many years the Legation was 



THE LAND OF THE ALHAMBKA 307 

burdened with Cuban claims; and the claimants, person- 
ally, through attorneys, and through instructions from the 
State Department, were urgent and insistent in demand- 
ing payment for enormous alleged injuries and losses. 

''Instead of making a drag-net of claims of varied worth 
and proof, my accomplished Secretary, E. H. Strobel, and 
myself, after thorough consideration, decided to select one, 
apparently the best sustained, and make a test of it, with 
the hope that an agreement to pay one would settle the 
principle and establish a precedent for paying others. After 
scores of interviews, annoying delays, wearing patience 
threadbare, I succeeded in getting an agreement to pay 
the claim of Mora for $1,500,000. This agreement bound 
the Government, committed the members of the Cabinet, 
— but aroused active opposition in the Cortes, threatened 
the existence of the Government, and drew down on Moret 
vile slanders. I wish just here parenthetically to affirm 
my perfect faith in Moret' s integrity and absolute freedom 
from word or act affecting in remotest degree the purity 
of his official life, or his fidelity to the interests and 
honor of Spain. The claim was delayed in payment for 
some years; and Spain, in her impecunious condition, 
finally yielded to heavy pressure brought to bear on her by 
the United States Government. Various pretences have 
been put forth, arrogating credit for the success of the 
Mora claim; but the decisive and binding agreement to 
pay was made with me as the United States representa- 
tive." 

Curry's personal charm and attractiveness, and 
his varied official duties and social opportunities at 
Madrid, made for him many friends and acquaint- 
ances there. Among them were different members 
of the royal family, and a number of the prominent 
politicians and statesmen of the time and country. 
The roll of their names is notable and significant, 



308 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

and includes Sigismund Moret, Sagasta, Castelar, 
Canovas and Salmeron; and on it also are inscribed 
those of the Archduchess of Austria, the Duke of 
Montpensier, the Comte de Paris, and many others 
of noble birth and distinguished rank. 

"Sigismund Moret," writes Curry, in 1901, "was the 
Minister of State, with whom I had all my official inter- 
course. Physically and intellectually he is a superb man. 
With enlightened views, varied experience, unusual abil- 
ity, unquestioned patriotism, unfailing suavity and cour- 
tesy of manner, it was a pleasure to deal with him; and our 
relations were most cordial. In politics, he is a Liberal, 
such as one would class with Asquith, Morley and Banner- 
man in England. . . . During the Spanish-American 
War he was Secretary for the Colonies, and would have 
favored large concessions to Cuba. In May, 1888, he said 
Cuba should be Americanized. If in the course of years it 
desired independence, such was the course of life. To give 
up Cuba then would be the overthrow of the monarchy; 
and in these utterances his chief, Sagasta, agreed. I am 
sure that to have allowed Cuba to hold the relation to 
Spain, that Canada does to England, would not have been 
objectionable. The insular American possessions, being 
the last of Spain's continental dominion, were regarded 
with special pride, and the sensitiveness of the people 
could not brook such a loss." 

Of Moret, Curry writes further, elsewhere: — 

My cordial and pleasant official relations with, and 
warm personal friendship for Senor Moret, and his desire 
to accommodate the diplomatic corps, and to finish the 
work in his department, did not cure him of the incurable 
Spanish habit of not doing to-day what can be deferred 
until to-morrow. As in the East the first and last word a 
traveller hears is backsheesh, so in Spain the first and last 
word is manana. My diary shows numerous interviews 



THE LAND OF THE ALHAMBEA 309 

with the Secretary; as many unkept appointments; and 
when conferences were held, final issues were not reached, 
generally because of this national habit. The experience 
of my colleagues was the same as mine. 

The traditional and distinguishing Spanish char- 
acteristic of putting off till to-morrow everything 
possible which might be done to-day is dwelt upon 
by Curry in many of his letters from Madrid, and in 
his other Spanish memorabilia; and it is worthy 
of remark that he should have accomplished so 
much in a diplomatic way in the teeth of such un- 
favorable conditions. But he was a diplomat by 
nature and cultivation, though with no lack of 
frankness and candor in all his diplomatic life. His 
long habitude of dealing with men had cultivated 
in him the patience and perseverance and sweet 
serenity of temper which were parts of his original 
nature; and, through this happy union of natural 
and acquired qualities, he was enabled, as a foreign 
minister, to merit the high praise bestowed upon 
him by his chief. Secretary Bayard, who, before his 
experience at Madrid was a year old, wrote to him 
in a private letter: — 

It is not invidious to say you have accomplished more in 
your single year than your predecessors in twenty years. 

During his stay at Madrid, Curry kept up a regu- 
lar correspondence with his son. Manly, who then 
resided at St. Paul; and his letters, thus written, 
without reserve, possess much of the charm that 
spontaneity must give to all letter-writing. 

''I make it a rule," he said in one of these epistles, "to 
send you at least one letter a week. Sometimes, as I usu- 
ally write a little every day, I do more." 



310 J. L. M. CUERY, A BIOGRAPHY 

Many of these weekly letters were lost or de- 
stroyed; but those that remain contain much that 
is of interest. In one of them the writer gives a 
vivid and pleasing picture of the Spanish Congress, 
and of some of its leading figures. 

The last two afternoons I have attended the sessions of 
Congress, which is a National Debating Society. For 
some weeks the body has been engaged in verifying their 
credentials, and discussing the speech from the Throne, 
which is a sort of Ministerial or Governmental platform. 
The room, — or the seats, rather, — are semi-circular. A 
part of the front row is occupied by the Ministers, who 
are provided with desks. Under every seat is a drawer, 
and a little writing-shelf can be raised. I have seen no 
one reading a newspaper, or a book, except for reference. 
I counted over fifty bald heads. Very meagre notes 
are used. I have seen no manuscripts. As with us 
and the House of Commons, and unlike the Assembly 
in France, every member speaks from his seat. Span- 
iards are garrulous and voluble, and their speeches are 
generally long; but there is no scrambling over the 
** floor" as with us. In Washington a hundred voices will 
scream out "Mr. Speaker!" Here, one very quietly is 
recognized; and there is evidently a pre-arrangement as to 
who shall speak, and a preference given to Ministers. 

The Chair seems to have much power. He uses a larger 
bell as a gavel, and a smaller bell to summon some one to 
do his bidding. There are no pages; and generally the 
body is very orderly. One day I heard Lopez Dominguez, 
the leader of the ** Dynastic Left," and a reply by the Min- 
ister of Grace and Justice. Yesterday I heard Salmeron, 
the leader of the small band of Republicans, and a reply by 
my friend, Moret. Salmeron is an able man, — speaks well 
and deliberately, with self-control. He assailed Mon- 
archy, and his speech commanded attention and excited 
contentions. When he finished, some of his band hugged 



THE LAND OF THE ALHAMBRA 311 

and kissed him. Moret speaks distinctly, gracefully, rap- 
idly, eloquently. He elicited much applause from his Lib- 
eral supporters, and even from Conservatives. . . . 

Yesterday p. m. Mary accompanied me to Congress, 
and we heard Castelar, the distinguished Republican, of 
whom I wrote some time ago. Enthusiasts (see March 
Century, 1886) write of him as the Orator of Humanity, — 
as the peculiar, unparalleled product of Spanish environ- 
ment. I was disappointed. He is full of poetry, imagina- 
tion, fervor. He has read widely, and his language is 
full, chaste, appropriate. He is the most impassioned 
speaker I ever heard, — rants excessively, gesticulates 
vehemently and ludicrously. The pantomime — and it 
was not much more to me in my unfamiliarity with the 
language, and my bad position for hearing — was not effec- 
tive. His voice was not distinct nor musical, probably 
the result of hoarseness, and the use of too much fluid. 
{Do not misunderstand me: he is very temperate; does not 
smoke nor even drink wine, and that in Spain is some- 
thing unique.) I was not moved. I have heard men in a 
foreign tongue, who, by voice or acting, stirred me. Cas- 
telar did not. He is not to be compared to Yancey. Who 
is? . . . 

Curry's judgment of Castelar was not that of his 
contemporaries; nor is it likely to be that of pos- 
terity. Of all the Europeans of his day, no orator 
has left a more pronounced reputation for unusual 
and gifted eloquence than the Spaniard, Emilio 
Castelar. ^^ Athens," say his countrymen, *'had its 
Demosthenes, Rome its Cicero; and we have our 
Castelar"; and if the majestic company in which 
they place him may seem to the casual reader an 
exaggeration of his powers, he undoubtedly wielded 
the stirring oratory that of right belongs al- 
ways to the history of the minority, as the most 



312 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

thrilling poetry belongs to the story of the con- 
quered. 

Mr. Adee, whom Curry has mentioned as the 
Assistant Secretary of State of the United States at 
the time of his appointment to Madrid, and who 
was charge d'affaires at Madrid fifteen years before 
Curry was made Minister, has written of Castelar : — 

I saw him make his famous speech on the bill for Cuban 
emancipation. Madrid was agog for weeks beforehand. 
It was announced that Castelar was to make the grandest 
effort of his life. Tickets for the galleries were eagerly 
sought. Every deputy was in his seat, every nook was 
filled. The initial proceedings interested no one. A 
Spaniard said to me: ''All Madrid has come to a Castelar 
matinee." 

''Of the character of his oratory,'^ continues Mr. Adee, 
"it is not easy to speak. His discourses do not bear close 
analysis. Canovas, Alonza Martinez, Sagasta, Martos, 
and many others are his masters in debate. In fact Caste- 
lar is not a good debater. Set speeches are his peculiar 
province. I have heard it said that they are written and 
committed to memory. Taken unawares by a shrewd 
logician, whom florid generalities will not silence, he does 
not show to advantage." 

Yet after all, real oratory is not of the logician. 
The fervid passion of O'Connell, the stirring speech 
of Thomas Francis Meagher, the sonorous and 
splendid diction of John Mitchel, all illustrate how 
far apart are the cold, calm, clear cut logic of the 
scientist, the reasoner, the casuist, and the emotional 
eloquence of that indescribable oratory which stirs 
and thrills the hearts and souls of those who hear it. 

Curry himself appears to have modified his opinion 
of Castelar; for two years later he wrote: — 



THE LAND OF THE ALHAMBRA 313 

He and Moret were the best speakers in the Cortes. 
One speech of Castelar's which I had the pleasure of hear- 
ing was a wonderful triumph of oratory. For fifteen min- 
utes after he closed, the hurrahs and vivas were kept up 
tumultuously; and Sagasta, the Prime Minister, crossed 
the Chamber and embraced him. 

Of other Spanish statesmen of the day Curry 
wrote interestingly to his son: — 

We also heard for an hour Canovas, the head of the late 
ministry. He is probably the ablest man in Spain; is not an 
orator, but spoke well. The Republican leader, Salmeron, 
having characterized him as a "modern Torquemeda," the 
reply was sarcastic and severe. Canovas is the most inter- 
esting dinner-companion I have met in Spain. 

Of Canovas, Curry at a later date wrote to his 
son: — 

"Canovas, the leader of the Conservatives, lately sent 
me a good photograph, with his autograph. A good saying 
is attributed to him in reference to Castelar's well-known 
vanity, and peacockish display." 

And he repeats the story which he had written to 
Mr. Winthrop about "the bridegroom '^ and ''the 
corpse.^' 

During the hot season, when ^'Castilian Days'' 
at their best were almost unendurable, Curry and 
his wife fled to the mountains, or to the seashore, 
as the impulse moved them. From Biarritz, beloved 
of American tourists, he wrote his son. Manly, a 
letter in September, 1886, which is full of interest, 
as illustrating the attitude of his mind toward the 
morality of the day. His view of art may seem 
uncosmopolitan, but it may at least be conceded to 
have been sincere; and if Matthew Arnold's stigma- 
tism of Henry Ward Beecher as "si heated bar- 



314 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

barian/' was in any sense just, it may be said of 
Curry, a typical American of his time, that if in 
the estimate of cultured Europeans he was ^'bar- 
barian'^ — of the ''hoi barbaroi" in the real Greek 
sense — he was at least not a "heated" one. 

''You know," he writes to his son, Manly, after attend- 
ing a grand opera at Biarritz, ''I am no judge of mu- 
sic; and so I omit any expression of opinion; but the 
scenery was elaborate and beautiful, the tableaus like 
fairy works; and the dancing sylph-like and graceful. 
I am, however, such an 'old fogy,' as not to approve so 
much nudity and such studied exposure of person. After 
much observation and reflection, while relaxing my rigid 
notions in some particulars, I am forced to conclude that 
the nudity in pictures and statues, the suggestive half- 
concealments and half-exposures, in art, in dances, in 
much fashionable dressing, have a very deleterious influ- 
ence on personal purity and national morals. The reply 
is quick, I know, 'To the pure all things are pure,' and 
' Honi soil qui mal y pense ' as the motto of the Knights of 
the Garter phrases it; but man is a poor, frail fallible crea- 
ture, with strong appetites and passions, with dominant 
tendencies to evil; and the history of Spain, France, Italy, 
Austria, Greece and old Rome, shows a depravation of 
morals, and an amount of conjugal infidelity and personal 
impurity that, so far, England and the United States are 
comparatively free from. When I see the American youth 
of both sexes, who were trained in pure religious homes, 
standing for hours before the inimitable productions of 
Titian's pencil, or ancient sculptors, or seeing the exhibi- 
tions on the stage, I shudder, because I know that an im- 
pure thought cherished, wicked passion conceived, is a 
heritage of misery, and a source of corruption. My ob- 
jections will be hooted at; but sneers and ridicule are not 
arguments, and do not reverse the unchangeable records 
of history." 



THE LAND OF THE ALHAMBEA 315 

Another letter to his son suggests memories of an 
illustrious Virginia scholar and historian, whose 
learning has preserved the names of many of the ear- 
lier Virginians, — the Honorable Hugh Blair Grigsby. 

''I have just finished my letter to dear Mr. Winthrop," 
he writes to Manly Curry on July 4th, 1886. 

*'He and Mr. Grigsby had a habit of writing to each 
other every Fourth; and when Grigsby died, I fell heir to 
the privilege. Virginia and Massachusetts should lock 
hands every Fourth. My foreign residence and represen- 
tative character intensify my patriotism. A contrast be- 
twixt people and institutions in the United States makes 
me more and more in love with America and our represen- 
tative free governments.'^ 

The roster of Curry's correspondents, as illustrated 
in his letter-books of the period, constitutes a shining 
bede-roll, the simple mention of whose names must 
cause regret that the limits of this volume do not 
admit the publication of their letters. Among them, 
after Mr. Winthrop's, are those of Secretary Bayard, 
General Armstrong of the Hampton School, Senor 
Moret, Dr. John A. Broadus, President Cleveland, 
General Joseph E. Johnston, Assistant Secretary 
Adee, Hon. John W. Foster, Alexander Brown the 
Virginia historian, James Russell Lowell, E. J. 
Phelps, Francis Wharton, Senor Sagasta, Senor 
Castelar, Dr. Josiah Strong, Senor Salmer6n, Gen. 
Sickles, William Wirt Henry, William A. Courtenay, 
Sir Philip H. W. Currie, Richmond Pearson, and 
others scarcely less well known. 

Of Mr. Winthrop his admiration was ever increas- 
ing, and not infrequently expressed. In August, 
1886, he wrote to his son. Manly, ^'Mr. Winthrop 
has sent me another volume of his speeches. His 



316 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

intellectual and beneficent activity shames me. He 
might plead the infirmities of age, and point proudly 
to the work achieved; but he practically says re- 
provingly to the less laborious and useful young, 
*I must be about my Father's business'; " and in 
the following November he writes to Winthrop him- 
self, with the unreserved frankness of affection: — 

We felt sure your thoughtful kindness would not forget 
your far-away friends, and we were not disappointed; for 
in good time came the printed address of yourself and the 
Report of Dr. Green, and then one of your unapproach- 
able letters. The letters of Byron, Gray, Walpole, Lady 
Mary Montagu, have worldwide celebrity; but a judicious 
collection of yours would take the highest rank in the Lit- 
erature of Letters. 

The industry and intellectual activity which 
Curry praised in Winthrop were never wanting in 
his own case. His energetic diplomacy at Madrid 
still left him the time, which the busiest man always 
finds, for yet other business; and during his occupa- 
tion of the Spanish mission he made a study of the 
Spanish constitutions, the result of which he com- 
pressed into a volume of three hundred pages under 
the title, '^Constitutional Government in Spain." 
This book was published in 1889 by the Harpers. 
From the Spanish records, too, he prepared and con- 
tributed to the Magazine of American History a 
paper on ''The Acquisition of Florida"; and he 
wrote an introduction for Dr. Armitage's "History 
of the Baptists." It was with the pride and pleasure 
that spring from old associations that he saw at this 
time his public and literary distinction recognized 
and acknowledged by the University of Georgia, 
the home of his first intellectual triiunphs. On the 



THE LAND OF THE ALHAMBKA 317 

13th of July, 1887, the Chancellor of the University 
wrote to him as follows: — 

I have the honor and the pleasure to inform you that the 
Trustees of the University of Georgia have this day con- 
ferred upon you the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. 
Your Alma Mater hopes that her gifted and distinguished 
son will accept this deserved honor at her hands. 

The Curry s had spent the summer of 1886 in 
Southern France; and the next summer had re- 
turned to the United States for a visit. The summer 
of 1888 saw their career in Spain drawing to a close. 
The earlier months of the season were passed in 
travelling in Austria, Italy and Switzerland; and in 
August, Curry sent to Washington the resignation 
of his commission of Minister to Spain. It was 
'' accepted with regret"; and in September he sailed 
from Havre for America, leaving Mrs. Curry in 
Paris for a stay of a month or two longer. On the 
26th of September, 1888, he called on Mr. Bayard, 
the Secretary of State, and upon the day following 
on President Cleveland. 

Two days later he ^^ closed up his accounts," as 
he phrases it, at the State Department. 

The verdict of the administration which he had 
served was rendered in the following letters from the 
Secretary of State and from the President: — 

Depaktment of State, 
Washington, October 27, 1888. 
J. L. M. CuRKY, Esq., 
Richmond, Virginia. 
Sir: — When I received your dispatch of August 6th 
last, tendering your resignation of the office of Envoy Ex- 
traordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the United 



318 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

States to Spain, to take effect on September 5th last, you 
informed me that you were then upon the eve of departing 
from Madrid for Switzerland, under your leave of absence, 
and requested a short reply by telegraph, addressed to you 
at Geneva; and signified your willingness to receive a more 
formal reply after you should have returned to the United 
States. 

In consonance with your wishes, I telegraphed you the 
President's reluctant acceptance of your resignation, and 
the regret I felt in communicating it. 

It is not alone that I feel a personal loss in your with- 
drawal from a service in the Department of which I am 
the head, but the country at large is a loser by your retire- 
ment. 

The confidence felt in your ability and patriotism, 
which caused your selection for an important diplomatic 
position, has been fully justified by your performance of 
its duties. 

The impairment of your health by the unfavorable 
climate of Madrid, to which alone I must attribute your 
resignation, I trust will be speedily restored in your native 
land; and with sincere thanks for your honorable and effi- 
cient service to the country, I am sincerely and most truly 
yours, 

T. F. Bayard. 

Executive Mansion, 
Washington, Nov. 2, 1888. 
Hon. J. L. M. Curry. 

My dear Sir: — 

I shall not feel satisfied until I say to you more fully 
than I have already done, that it is with the utmost regret 
that I permit you to sever your relation to our Diplomatic 
Service. Your representation of the Government at the 
Court of Spain has been so satisfactory in all respects, that 
I should be constrained to ask you to reconsider your de- 
termination to vacate your official post, if it was based 



THE LAND OF THE ALHAMBKA 319 

upon anything less personal and important than your 
health. 

I hope that the resumption of your former duties at 
home will be attended by great satisfaction to yourself and 
great progress in the cause of education, which you have 
had for so many years sincerely at heart. 

Yours very truly, 

Grover Cleveland. 



CHAPTER XVII 

THE PEABODY FUND AGAIN 

President Cleveland's felicitation of Curry upon 
his educational work was a fair expression of the 
thought of many friends of education in America, 
and especially in the States of the South. As 
long as a year before his final resignation of the 
mission to Spain Curry had expressed to Mr. Win- 
throp his desire to take up the General Agency of 
the Peabody Fund again; and the venerable pres- 
ident of the Peabody Board had hailed the prospect 
with delight. 

Madrid, 28 April, 1887. 
Dear Mr. Winthrop: 

. . . And now for a suggestion; which I have not 
discussed with Mrs. Curry, between whom and myself 
there are never any reserves in matters relating to per- 
sonal duties and interests. 

My mission here has been a success; but for a year or 
two I see little to be done beyond routine work and a 
"masterly inactivity" in watching the progress of events, 
so as to allow the Republic to suffer no detriment. While 
my health is perfectly restored, it has been accomplished 
by flying from Madrid in winter and early spring months. 
The climate here is treacherous and dangerous; and I 
have been seriously debating in my mind, whether the 
remaining years of my life should not be given to my 
country, within the limits and on the soil of that country. 
It therefore has occurred to me to mention to you, and 

320 



THE PEABODY FUND AGAIN 321 

only to you, whether, if in the coming Peabody year an 
Agent is to be appointed, I might not say, that as at pres- 
ent advised, I would not be unwilling to consider, with 
favorable prepossessions, a proposition to resume my 
former connection with the Fund. 

I mention this that you may think of it, and that we 
may talk it over, knowing that you will honor me with 
your usual frankness and wisdom, having reference to 
myself personally and the interests of the work. 

Mrs. Curry, as I wrote to you on the 4th inst., will sail 
from Liverpool on the ''Adriatic" the 25th of May, in 
company with Dr. Field, and I have written to engage 
my passage on the " Etruria " for the 6th of August. 

Yours sincerely, 

J. L. M. Curry. 

The Hon. Robt. C. Winthrop, 
Boston, Mass. 

To this letter Mr. Winthrop had replied: — 

Brookline, Mass. 
24 May, 1887. 
Dear Mr. Curry: 

... He (Dr. Green) concurs with me heartily in the 
desire to reinstate you in the General Agency, and then 
to leave you to find a Chancellor for the Nashville Nor- 
mal, — holding the place yourself until you have found the 
right man. Of course the Trustees must ratify such a 
proceeding, but there cannot be a doubt of their entire 
readiness and eagerness to do so; and I hope we may 
consider the matter settled. I had begun to be very 
uneasy about the future of our Board. Many things 
had concurred to make me anxious. I will not go into 
details. I can now see the way clear. With the arrange- 
ment once more in your hands, I should be ready to sing 
a Nunc Dimittis, and to depart in peace . . . Every- 



322 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

body, South and North, has confidence in you for this 
great Education Trust. You will have heard from Gov. 
Porter on the subject. Dr. Lindsley and Mr. Jones have 
written to me and to him, earnestly calling for you. The 
newspapers have begun to discuss it. I will not say 
more to-day, but I hope and trust that you will come over 
in August with a full willingness and purpose to resume 
the General Agency, and to carry the Trust through to 
its limited end. I wish you were embarking to-morrow 
with Mrs. Curry, so that there would be more time for 
arrangement before our Annual Meeting. . . . 

Yours sincerely, 

ROBT. C. WiNTHROP. 

H. E. 
J. L. M. Curry. 

Curry returned in August; and they ^'talked 
it over'' in all of its details. During this visit home 
the dissensions and troubles, which had temporarily 
arisen between the Tennessee State Board of Educa- 
tion and the Peabody Board over the Normal College 
at Nashville, were adjusted; and Dr. Payne, through 
Curry's instrumentality, was made the President of 
the College. So that Curry's return to his post at 
Madrid was with the assurance that when his diplo- 
matic labors should end, he could take up again, 
where he had left it off, the work in which his heart 
was more warmly enlisted than it had ever been in 
any other. 

In the following May, he wrote to Mr. Winthrop 
from Madrid: — 

We are making our arrangements for returning in 
August. I feel a strong desire to get back to the work I 
love so much, and to have a nearer association with you. 
If I can, as General Agent, act on the lines you approve 



THE PEABODY FUND AGAIN 323 

for cultivating a larger and intenser patriotism, and for 
keeping up a constant pressure in the direction of in- 
structed public opinion, I shall be happy. To write a 
history of the Trust is also a cherished desire; but I wish 
to execute it thoroughly and conscientiously, so as to 
give satisfaction to the Trustees, do justice to Mr. Pea- 
body, and stimulate a healthier public sentiment. 

In less than three weeks after his return home from 
Spain, he was again at work as General Agent of the 
Peabody Fund. 

The meeting, which welcomed Curry back to his 
old work, was held, according to custom, at the Fifth 
Avenue Hotel in New York; Mr. Winthrop inducted 
him into his old work in these gracious words: — 

"Gentlemen of the Peabody Board of Trustees: 

"It is a matter of special satisfaction and gratification 
to me this morning that I am privileged to welcome the 
reappearance among us of our friend, Dr. Curry, and to 
announce to you that after three years of valuable service 
as the Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States at 
the Court of Madrid, he has resigned that office, and has 
returned home to resume his labors in the great cause of 
education, as the General Agent of the Peabody Trust. 

''The business of our Board, as you know, since Dr. 
Curry withdrew from our service in October, 1885, has 
been conducted by our faithful and untiring Secretary, 
Dr. Green, as General Agent, pro tempore; and to him 
our most grateful acknowledgments are due for his de- 
voted and efficient labors, — voluntarily assumed and per- 
formed as labors of love, and thus saving no inconsiderable 
amount of our restricted income for appropriation to the 
Southern Schools. Dr. Green has, however, come to the 
conclusion with me that for the entire success of our work 
there is now a positive need of committing our General 
Agency anew to an accompUshed Southern man of large 



324 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

personal experience in educational matters in the Southern 
States, and of special gifts for communicating the results 
of that experience to his fellow-workers in the same field, — 
such a man as Dr. Curry abundantly proved himself to 
be during the four years of his previous service. With 
the full understanding, therefore, of what was hoped and 
expected, authority was given to me at our last meeting 
to appoint a General Agent, under the advice of the 
Executive Committee, whenever I should think it best 
to do so. Under that authority. Dr. Curry has been 
appointed, and has accepted the appointment. With him 
once more at the helm, I feel assured that we shall hold 
on our track successfully to the end. ..." {Peabody 
Proceedings, Vol. IV, pp. 3, 4.) 

The note of satisfaction in the President's brief 
address, at getting their General Agent again '4n 
the traces,'^ was echoed in the public and private 
expressions that accompanied his restoration. Not- 
ably among these was a letter from the Rev. John 
A. Broadus. 

Louisville, Oct. 11, 1888. 
Dear Brother Curry: 

I am glad to think of you as at home in our own country 
again, and again wielding all the educational influence you 
must have as manager of the Peabody Fund. I think our 
Southern countrymen have gone just far enough in respect 
of popular education to be in pressing and urgent need of 
going further. There is no man living who can exert so 
wide and wholesome an influence among them as you can 
do, in the position you hold, and with all your eloquence, 
wisdom and personal prestige. Pardon me. I should not 
know how to use words of compliment to you. I am only 
speaking of facts. 

I notice the suggestion, that you may make Washington 
your home, and think of that idea also with pleasure; al- 



THE PEABODY FUND AGAIN 325 

though, as a Virginian, I should sympathize with the Rich- 
mond folks in losing your residence. Washington would 
give certain advantages for making your educational work. 
It would bring you into free association with the adminis- 
tration and the legislators, who might in numerous ways 
profit by your wisdom and experience as a statesman. 
And you could do no little good there as a Baptist. I 
preached four Sundays at the Calvary Church the past 
summer, and got the conception that Washington Bap- 
tists have decided possibilities of development. . . . 
Your Friend and Brother, 

John A. Broadus. 
Hon. J. L. M. Curry. 

Of his second period of service under the Peabody 
Board, and indeed of his general relations to that 
Trust, and to that of the Slater Fund, Curry has 
left among his papers some notes that are of interest 
and value, and that have hitherto remained un- 
published. 

Scrupulously, in the discharge of my duties, as General 
Manager of the Peabody and the Slater Funds, I have not 
permitted any political or sectional or denominational 
considerations to enter into, or influence, in the slightest 
degree, my action. With State Superintendents, whether 
Republican or Democratic, my relations have been cor- 
dial. Official intercourse has ripened into personal friend- 
ship; and Mason and Dixon's line, as I wrote to an appli- 
cant for appointment as conductor of an institute, did not 
now run through political geography, and with my consent 
should never run through Grammar and Arithmetic. 
. . . When Dr. Stearns, the first President (of the Pea- 
body Normal College) died, Mr. Winthrop put it upon me 
to find and to recommend to the Trustees a proper succes- 
sor. The choice fell on Dr. Wilham H. Payne of Michigan, 
and the Trustees sanctioned by an election the recommen- 



326 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

dation. ... As indicative of the Catholic policy of 
the Trustees, and of my spirit and aim, I may say that 
when submitting the proposition to Dr. Payne to become 
the President, I enjoined him not to let me know what 
were his political or denominational preferences. 

One college, to which State scholarships were assigned, 
was not considered adequate to the needs; and State Nor- 
mal Schools were soon organized after my earnest advo- 
cacy and promise of aid from the Fund. For the further 
advancement of the qualification of teachers, summer 
schools were encouraged and aided. A few public schools 
in the several States were aided under conditions of free 
tuition, a local tax and nine months' session. From the 
organization of the Trust, a rule now generally known as 
the Peabody rule, and frequently adopted, has been rigor- 
ously applied, of helping those who help themselves. This 
largely increases the gifts to schools and secures local vigi- 
lance and increased interest in education. In my ministry 
of education, travelling from Potomac to Rio Grande, in- 
specting schools and colleges, stimulating hope and cour- 
age and progress, I have made hundreds of educational 
speeches, and addressed, some times several times, every 
Southern legislature. These addresses have been widely 
circulated, and they and my Annual Reports, now con- 
tained in four volumes, are, in connection with the invalu- 
able volumes of the Bureau of Education, probably the 
most complete history of education in the Southern 
States. . . . 

As frequent inquiries are made of me as to the mode of 
selecting schools for Peabody aid, the amount given, and 
the transmission of the money, it may be as well to say 
that all power in the management of the Fund is reposed 
in the hands of the Trustees, who meet annually to receive 
and pass upon the report of the Treasurer and General 
Agent, and to transact such other business as to them may 
seem necessary. Very large discretion is given to the Gen- 
eral Agent in deciding upon the disbursement of the annual 



THE PEABODY FUND AGAIN 327 

income which, in the autumn, he is notified will be avail- 
able, at different periods in the coming year, for school pur- 
poses. Taking that amount as the basis of action, the 
General Agent makes a schedule of appropriations cover- 
ing the entire amount. From time to time, according to 
what may be available in different months, a requisition, 
specifying schools, is submitted to the Executive and the 
Finance Committees. When they approve, as in no in- 
stance they have failed to do, the requisition is sent to the 
Treasurer, . . . and he promptly notifies me that the 
amount asked for has been placed in the bank to my credit. 
Checks are drawn on the bank for sums approved in favor 
of the President of the Normal College, or of the State 
Superintendents of Education. This confinement to Su- 
perintendents is because the Peabody Fund is given only 
in aid of institutions entirely, or in part controlled by the 
States. For these checks duplicate receipts are returned, 
one of which is retained, and the other accompanies my 
annual account as a voucher for auditing. 

Curry carried his resolution to avoid political 
partisanry so far, that in the Presidential campaign 
of 1888, in which Mr. Cleveland was again nominated 
for the presidency of the Republic, although often 
urged to go upon the hustings, he refrained save in 
the single instance of making a campaign speech a 
day or two before the election to his friends and 
neighbors in Richmond. Yet there is no doubt that 
the politics of the period interested him tremen- 
dously. He had written to the President in Decem- 
ber, 1887, with reference to the Annual Message to 
Congress : — 

'^You have drawn the attention of the country 
from 'the bloody shirt,' from sectional passion and 
hate, to practical measures, to fundamental prin- 
ciples; " and in the same letter he spoke of the 



328 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

message in terms which evinced the unabated fires 
of his earUer democracy. After stating that until 
the day previous to the date of his letter, when the 
New York papers had brought the full text of the 
message, of which he had only seen an abstract in 
the London Times, he continues: — 

The completed paper confirms the opinion derived from 
the summary. It is clear, courageous, statesmanlike. 
Judged from this point of view, I would not change a word. 
It has the ring of the good old democratic days of the Re- 
public. It reminds me of the utterances of Polk, Wright 
and Woodbury. I should like to make a hundred speeches 
in the Presidential campaign with that message as a plat- 
form. 

The message discussed the great question of 
Federal Taxation from the standpoint of a tariff for 
revenue; and it became in reality, the platform of 
Mr. Cleveland's party in the ensuing presidential 
election, when that issue became ^'paramount." 
Immediately upon Curry's landing in New York, he 
had been solicited by the democratic campaign 
managers to enter the canvass; and it may well be 
imagined that the old spirit of the political debater 
stirred him deeply. But he had made up his mind 
to return to what Mr. Winthrop habitually spoke of 
as '^The Great Cause" — the work of the Peabody 
Fund; and his wise conception of the duty which 
he owed that work forbade his entrance upon the 
field of partisan political debate. He stuck to the 
text which he had laid down for his guidance as 
Peabody Agent, with a persistence which did not 
gainsay any political conviction, while it vindicated 
the sanity of his judgment. 

The ill-health, which had apparently been first 



THE PEABODY FUND AGAIN 329 

engendered in Spain, returned to Curry at various 
times in 1889 and 1890, and interfered seriously with 
his work; so that from this time on to the end of 
his busy career, he was a sufferer. It was probably 
one of these acute attacks which elicited from Mr. 
Winthrop in January, 1890, the sentiment: — 

I wish we had an insurance on your life, — not one from 
any earthly office, but from the Great Disposer, — so that I 
might be assured that you would have the final executor- 
ship of the Trust. What may happen to me is of little 
moment. 

Although Curry, as above stated, made it his 
habit to eschew the activities of party politics, after 
associating himself with the Peabody Trust, he 
nevertheless did not hesitate to grapple boldly with 
any question of education, without regard to its 
creation of partisan feeling. This is strikingly illus- 
trated in his relation to what is generally known in 
the political history of the period as '^The Blair Bill.'' 

During the session of Congress which met Decem- 
ber 3, 1883, the Republican Senate passed the Blair 
Education Bill, the purpose of which was to give 
from the Federal Treasury certain sums of money 
for the promotion of education in various States, the 
distribution to be made according to the percentages 
of illiteracy in the populations. It was defeated in 
the Democratic House of Representatives, of which 
Mr. Carlisle was then the Speaker. In 1888 it again 
passed the Senate by a diminished majority, and 
was again defeated in the House. But Democrats 
and Republicans were alike divided on the measure; 
and Curry, though never recanting his adherence to 
the Calhoun theories of constitutional construction, 



330 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

espoused the cause of the Blau- Bill with enthusiasm. 
In the fall of 1889 he published widely in the news- 
papers appeals for National Aid to Education. 
These were preliminary to a pamphlet which he later 
addressed to Congress. Mr. Winthrop approved of 
the preparation of this pamphlet, although it does 
not appear that he knew of its exact language. In 
it Curry referred to his connection with the Peabody 
Fund. The effect of the pamphlet on the Peabody 
Board was to cause one of its most distinguished 
members to threaten resignation. As soon as Curry 
caught the wind, he was also ready to resign as Gen- 
eral Agent; and Mr. Winthrop seems to have been 
in great distress. The '^prominent member^' ob- 
jected, in a personal letter to the President of the 
Board, to the pamphlet, which was addressed as 
''An Appeal to Southern Representatives in Congress 
and to the Friends of Free Schools in the South," on 
the grounds, first, of the ''sectional" reference; 
second, because Curry referred to himself in the 
circular as General Agent of the Peabody Fund. 
Winthrop prevented the threatened resignation by 
showing this recalcitrant member that the Board 
had years before, on the initiative of the Hon. Alex. 
H. H. Stuart of Virginia, put themselves on record 
as favoring "National Aid," and that Curry's action 
had been that of an individual rather than in his 
representative capacity. The trouble was healed; 
and Mr. Winthrop wrote of its conclusion to Curry: 
'^Deus dat his quoque finem!*' 

But Winthrop himself had been as eager for the 
passage of the Blair Bill as had been Curry; and its 
defeat once more, in March, 1890, elicited from him 
the following letter: — 



THE PEABODY FUND AGAIN 331 

Boston, Mass., 
21 March, 1890. 
Dear Dr. Curry: 

This morning's papers have just announced to me the 
defeat of the Blair Bill. It is no surprise to me. I have 
long felt that the measure was doomed. I do not envy 
those who have killed it. Sherman's vote has astonished 
— I may better say, astounded — me. Evarts made an ex- 
cellent speech but did not convince even his colleague His- 
cock. Hawley seems to have struck the fatal blow. I am 
sorry it should have been wielded by a New England man. 
But after all, the death of the measure will always lie at the 
door of Carlisle and Randall, who for successive sessions 
have smothered the Bill in the House. It ought to have 
passed by a unanimous vote in both branches several years 
ago. Its passage now, by the casting vote of the Vice- 
president, or by any meagre majority, would have been 
anything but satisfactory. 

I have always thought and said that the South could 
have the National Aid, if their Senators and Representa- 
tives would demand and sustain it. Daniel and Barbour, 
and others from the South, have done excellent work for 
it. . . . 

ROBT. C. WiNTHROP. 

Curry had written to Winthrop a month earlier, 
in explanation of his pamphlet, that he had addressed 
it to the '^ Southern Representatives'' and to the 
''Friends of Free Schools in the South," because he 
felt that he could make an appeal to them ''as a 
Southern man, alike concerned with them in the 
proper adjustment of the most terrible problem 
that Civilization and Free Institutions ever en- 
countered." 

But, after all is said, the element of Education was 
not the only one that entered into the national legis- 



332 J. L. M. CUEEY, A BIOaEAPHY 

lative dealings with the Blair Bill; and it was not 
solely the work of the two democratic Speakers of 
the House which killed it, as Mr. Winthrop thought. 
The old, irrepressible doctrine of the rights of the 
States, which must last as long as the written Con- 
stitution of our government retains significance, 
counted for more in the contest over the Blair Bill 
than the casual observer may have thought; and 
though disciples of Calhoun, like Curry, supported 
it, there can be little doubt that its final defeat may 
be conservatively attributed to the constitutional 
objection of its opponents. It may be said that the 
Blair Bill was submitted to the judgment of Con- 
gress from high, just motives; and, whatever the 
political view of it, there can be but little doubt 
that its defeat retarded educational development in 
the South seriously for two generations. 

Later in the year 1890 the opportunity was offered 
Curry, and accepted by him, of enlarging his educa- 
tional work in the South, with an especial view to 
''the adjustment of the most terrible problem that 
Civilization and Free Institutions ever encountered,'' 
as he had phrased it to Winthrop, and the considera- 
tion of which had caused the latter to say to the 
former in a letter dated Sept. 6, 1890: ''Oh, that the 
Ethiopian could change his skin! If there were any 
mode of bleaching the negro, our land would be at 
peace.'' Under date of October 31, 1890, Curry 
writes in his diary: — 

At Rennert Hotel in Baltimore met President Hayes by 
appointment, who wished to urge my acceptance of an ap- 
pointment as Chairman of Committee of Education of 
Slater Fund, to manage that as I have the Peabody. 

Held the matter under consideration. 



THE PEABODY FUND AGAIN 333 

November 5, left (Richmond) for New York. 

Had an interview with Mr. Winthrop in reference to my 
acceptance of the administration of the Slater Fund. 
Much gratified at offer. Approves my taking it if the 
labor be not too great. 

November 25, . . . Agreed to accept the position. 

Shortly before his death, Curry wrote the follow- 
ing account of his election as Manager of the Slater 
Fund, and of the nature and uses of the Fund itself : — 

On the 30th October, 1890, President Hayes, who was 
President of the Slater Board, wrote to Mr. Winthrop, the 
Chairman of the Peabody Trustees : — 

''The General Agent of the John F. Slater Education 
Fund has been chosen Bishop of the Methodist Church, 
South. This deprives the Board of the services of Bishop 
Haygood. With entire unanimity the Slater Board now 
prefer that Dr. Curry, the Agent of the Peabody Board, 
should take up the work laid down by Bishop Haygood. 
He is elected a member of the Slater Board, and is made 
Chairman of its Educational Committee, and will have an 
assistant. Both the Chief Justice and myself approved of 
the plan, and I am very solicitous that it will meet your 
approval. Dr. Curry will write you in regard to it. In- 
deed, he will abide by your judgment in the matter." 

The Peabody Board assenting, I accepted the position 
of Chairman of the Educational Committee, with the gen- 
eral powers and duties exercised by Bishop Haygood. The 
sphere of operation of the two Funds, and the general 
objects being partially the same, — the Peabody Fund 
being for the benefit of both races, and the Slater for the 
colored people, — it seemed, as has proved to be true, that 
the administration being in the same hands, the one some- 
what supplementing the other, there would be no conflict, 
but increased efficiency. 

The Slater Board in entrusting the general management 



334 J. L. M. CUEEY, A BIOGRAPHY 

of the educational problems to a new Agency, declared 
that it favored the policy of concentration upon a com- 
paratively small number of institutions, especially deserv- 
ing encouragement, paying attention to geographical posi- 
tion, to business methods, to service rendered in training 
of teachers, and to efforts made in the promotion of indus- 
trial training. Much has been said and done in connec- 
tion with industrial training in schools; and not a few un- 
warrantable claims have been made as to earliest sugges- 
tion and introduction. The Slater Trustees do not make 
any such pretensions as to originating what has long had 
advocacy and adoption; but it can with truth be said that 
since the organization of the Fund aid has uniformly been 
conditioned upon industrial instruction. In the Reports 
annually made to the Trustees, and in the occasional 
papers which the Fund had published, there have been in 
the presentation of the Negro problem, strongest insist- 
ence, for national, social, moral, individual reasons, upon 
industrial and manual training, and upon better prepara- 
tion of teachers for their great work. The author of this 
sketch would not presumptuously claim any undue merit, 
but he confidently appeals to the published and emphatic 
testimonials, borne to the value of his work and counsels by 
the principals of Tuskegee, Spelman, Hampton, Claflin, 
Tongaloo, and other colored schools. 

It may be pardonable vanity to record the fact that in 
Marion, Ala., in 1866, aided by Gov. Moore and Drs. 
Mcintosh and Raymond, the pastors of the Baptist and 
Presbyterian Churches, a meeting was called which passed 
resolutions, prepared and introduced by myself, favoring 
the education of the colored people by the white people 
of the South. 

Dr. Booker T. Washington, Principal of Tuskegee 
Institute, the most far-seeing man of his race in his 
generation in America, has paid eloquent tribute to 
this view of Curry ^s, with regard to what should 



THE PEABODY FUND AGAIN 335 

constitute the right education of the colored people 
of the South, in a monograph entitled '' Education 
of the Negro," in President Nicholas Murray But- 
ler's ^^ Education in the United States''. In a brief 
letter of this period, Washington summarizes his 
philosophy of the training of his race in a striking 
sentence : — 

TusKEGEE, Ala., Oct. 24, 1898. 
Dr. J. L. M. Curry, 

Washington, D. C. 
My dear Sir: 

Your check for the first quarter's Slater Fund money 
has been received and we are most grateful. 

I am very glad that you like my Chicago address. It 
was one of the very few times that I have ever referred 
to race prejudice, because I realize that it is a thing that 
must be lived down, not talked down. I referred to it as 
much for the benefit of the white man as for the black 
man. The President seemed greatly pleased with what 
I said. 

Yours sincerely, 

Booker T. Washington. 

President Angell adds his approbation of Curry's 
views on Negro education in the following letter: — 

Ann Arbor, Dec. 26, 1895. 
My dear Dr. Curry: 

I have read your Report and your Slater Paper on 
Negro Education with great interest, as I read all your 
writings on these subjects. I have not been in the far 
South since the War, and cannot well judge of the difficult 
features of the problem. But I know they are difficult, and 
I am glad to have the results of your study and observa- 
tion. I have often raised in my own mind some questions 
as to the true functions of the schools, which our religious 
bodies are, with the highest motives, supporting in the 



336 J. L. M. CUERY, A BIOGRAPHY 

South. It will be a great relief to us, if the South can her- 
self take them off our hands, and provide the needed edu- 
cation. If not, then a wise co-ordination of them with the 
public school system should be sought. I take it, there 
must be some provision for training colored teachers and 
preachers. I often quote, and I shall never forget, a strik- 
ing remark which you made at my house: ''It must be 
eternally right to Christianize and to educate the Negro." 

Yours very truly, 

James B. Angell. 

That the Negro needed and needs to be both 
Christianized and educated was never doubted by 
Curry from the dark days of his first citizenship, 
when, out of the Egyptian blackness of bondage and 
comparative heathenism, he was suddenly invested 
with all the rights and duties of American citizen- 
ship. That he could be both Christianized and edu- 
cated, and that upon his Christianization and his 
right education rested the hope of his race, and the 
safety and prosperity of the white race with whom he 
dwelt, were likewise maintained by Curry, with a 
zeal and enthusiasm that remained unabated to the 
end, and were worthy of the praise that such lofty 
and unselfish zeal and enthusiasm should always 
command. 

In ^^the Publications of the Southern History As- 
sociation" for March, 1901, more than five years 
after the date of Dr. Angell's letter, is given an ac- 
count of a meeting at Montgomery, Alabama, in 
May, 1900, — a ''conference on the race problems of 
the South," which was attended by and enlisted the 
most earnest consideration and thought of some of 
the best intellects of the country. North and South; 
among others who participated in its deliberation 



THE PEABODY FUND AGAIN 337 

being W. Bourke Cockran, Herbert Welsh, Hilary 
A. Herbert, Clifton R. Breckinridge, Paul B. Barrin- 
ger, H. B. Frizell, J. D. Dreher, A. M. Waddell, and 
J. L. M. Curry. The account states that '^the over- 
ruling note sounding through all their words was pes- 
simistic. Economically, morally, religiously, even 
physically, this sad key was struck time and again. 
There was one variation of relief to the solemn strain, 
the hope placed on the uplifting power of education. 
Especially was this emphasized by Dr. Curry." 

With all of his ceaseless work, held to its highest 
pitch by the enthusiastic will — the vis a tergo — of an 
unbending and dauntless courage, he found from 
year to year, as the busy man always finds, new time 
for other and newer work. 

In a letter to Winthrop he writes: — 

This week I attended the Commencement of the Normal 
School at Farmville. As I drew the bill for the organiza- 
tion of the School and the Peabody Fund has been helpful 
in its assistance, I have consented to continue as Trustee, 
while firmly declining the Presidency of the Board. 

On October 7, 1891, Curry was unanimously 
elected an honorary member of the Peabody Board, 
to continue in that position so long as he should re- 
main General Agent of the Fund. On the next day 
he attended a meeting, held in New York City, of 
the Educational Committee of the Slater Fund, of 
which Committee he was the chairman. Meetings 
of the Slater Board, or of the Educational Commit- 
tee, were held generally twice in each year; and the 
fall meeting was usually arranged in convenient con- 
nection, as to time and place, with the annual meeting 
of the Peabody Board. The dominating figure among 
the Slater Trustees was that of Ex-President Hayes, 



338 J. L. M. CUERY, A BIOGRAPHY 

between whom and Curry, as has heretofore appeared 
in these pages, had existed a personal friendship 
since their college days together at Harvard, in the 
early '40's, which was cemented by their later official 
associations with the Peabody and Slater Trusts. In 
November of 1891 Mr. Hayes, upon the invitation of 
Curry, accompanied him on a visit to the States of 
South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, 
Louisiana, and Tennessee; and upon this tour much 
appeared of a character to interest and please the ex- 
President. 

Curry relates, among others, the following inci- 
dent of their journey: — 

While visiting schools aided from the Slater and Pea- 
body Funds, and studying educational and social prob- 
lems, the people availed themselves cheerfully of a coveted 
opportunity of greeting an ex-President, and showing him 
a grateful appreciation of generous action for their relief 
from military authority and discriminating disabilities. 
Riding together near Orangeburg, S. C, and seeing a negro 
cabin in a cotton patch, he asked whether there would be 
any impropriety in his entering it, as he had never been 
inside of such a home. Stopping the carriage, I conducted 
him to the low, dark, illy-furnished, one-room cabin, in 
which was a woman, with a very young babe lying in a 
cradle. He examined the surroundings, asked in kind 
manner many questions, and as he was leaving gave her a 
silver dollar. Unobserved by the President, I told the 
woman who her visitor was, and how highly she had been 
honored. She broke out into exclamations of wonder and 
praise, clapping her hands in delight, and then informed 
the President, arrested by her jubilant cries, that she 
would give the baby his name. 

It was not very long after this that Curry was 
called upon to assist in paying the last sad tribute of 



THE PEABODY FUND AGAIN 339 

mortality to his friend. Mr. Hayes died early in 
January, 1893, and Curry was an honorary pall- 
bearer at his funeral. As an example of their 
affectionate relations this kindly letter from Mr. 
Hayes has interest: — 

Spiegel Grove, Ohio, April 20, 1891. 
My dear Dr. Curry: 

I have read with admiration and pleasure, to the 
last syllable, your study of Gladstone. It is so wonder- 
fully good that I must be excused for this fervid note. 
Your little book is most attractive and statesmanlike. 
Gladstone's matchless career is excellently told. I am, 
perhaps, less im^pressed by him than you are. I turned 
to Macaulay's "Gladstone on Church and State." M. 
speaks of G.'s language as having "a certain obscure 
dignity and sanctity." This gives my notion of his style 
and quality. But only think of M.'s article written in 
April 1839 — 52 years ago — in which G. is spoken of as 
the ''rising hope," ''the cautious leader," etc., etc., and 
G. still "on deck" after this lapse of time! Thanks for 
the book and sincere congratulations on its excellence. 

Faithfully, 

T>, ^ Rutherford B. Hayes. 

Dr. Curry. 

In his journal for the month he records the death 
of three illustrious acquaintances — that of Ruther- 
ford B. Hayes on the 17th; of L. Q. C. Lamar on the 
23rd, and of James G. Blaine on the 24th. In a 
letter to his son, written from Madrid in Decem- 
ber, 1886, he compared Mr. Blaine with Mr. Cleve- 
land, thus: — 

I am anxious to see the Message of the President. The 
spoils-hunting Democrats abuse him, but he is a man of 
deep convictions and of sound principles. He is worth a 
thousand men like Blaine. 



340 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

A visit with his wife to Europe in 1892 broke the 
monotony of his educational and Hterary labors, — 
for during his most exacting work as representative 
of the two great educational trusts which he adminis- 
tered, he found time to do a large amount of literary 
work of one kind or another; and he enjoyed the rest 
and recreation of a six months' journey through 
France, Germany, Turkey, Austria, Italy and Switz- 
erland. 

Under date of May 19, 1893, he writes in his jour- 
nal the following interesting item, illustrating the 
friendship which may exist between democracy and 
royalty: — 

Infanta Eulalia, Infante Antoine and suite arrived in 
Washington at 8:10 p. m. We met them at the station, 
and Infanta gave Mary a double kiss. 

This visit of members of the royal Spanish house- 
hold was incident to the Columbian Exposition at 
Chicago; and during the latter part of June, at Chi- 
cago, the Currys and the royal party were much to- 
gether. 

Among the distinguished guests, who upon occa- 
sion attended the annual banquets of the Peabody 
Board in New York, were the Honorable Joseph 
Chamberlain, M. P., and his wife, who were present 
at the banquet of October, 1893. 

Curry writes of the Englishman: — 

Chamberlain spoke contemptuously of Trevelyan; 
omitted no opportunity of making a fling at Gladstone; 
said Pitt was the greatest of English statesmen. The 
conversation turning on the Presidential exercise of the 
veto power, I remarked, by way of contrast, that its 
exercise now in England would come near creating a 



THE PEABODY FUND AGAIN 341 

revolution, as no sovereign since Queen Anne had inter- 
posed the prerogative. To this he promptly and stoutly 
objected, and said it had been used several times ''in this 
century" to defeat legislation. I knew I was right, but 
preferred not to controvert the point beyond saying that 
May's Constitutional History of England was my au- 
thority. 

This was the last meeting of the Peabody Board at 
which Mr. Winthrop was present. At the meeting of 
October, 1894, his address was read, but feeble 
health prevented his personal attendance. His death 
occurred but little more than a month later. On 
November 21 Curry attended his funeral at Trinity 
Church, Boston. 

As above stated, Curry, in the spare moments of 
his active and busy life, engaged industriously in lit- 
erary pursuits. . ' 

"My diplomatic career leaves this pleasant remem- 
brance," he writes in 1891, ''I did aid some historical 
investigations. Mr. Alexander Brown, Mr. John Mason 
Brown, Mr. Henry C. Lea, and Mr. J. G. Shea have been 
privately profuse, two of them publicly grateful, in their 
expressions of indebtedness for aid I had the happiness to 
render them in their researches. The Government ar- 
chives will make no mention of this, but I think I did the 
country some service in this incidental way." 

And at an earlier date he had written: — 

Apropos of the 4th of July, I have been able to find in 
the archives at Seville copies of letters written by Gov- 
ernor Patrick Henry to the Governor of Louisiana, during 
the Revolutionary War. Our friend, Wm. Wirt Henry, 
in his diligent search for material for the biography he 
nearly has ready for the press, of his grandfather, put me 



342 J. L. M. CUERY, A BIOGRAPHY 

on the track, and I was happy in being able to unearth 
them. During my residence in Madrid, through the 
partiahty and cheerful co-operation of Spanish officials, 
I have been successful in furnishing valuable assistance to 
Shea of New Jersey, the Browns of Kentucky and Vir- 
ginia, Lea of Philadelphia, Bowen of New York, in their 
historical researches. 

He had, himself, written during his stay at Madrid, 
'^Constitutional Government in Spain,'' which was 
published in 1889, and a '^Life of William Ewart 
Gladstone," that came from the press in 1891. In 
1894 he had another work ready for publication, on 
''The Southern States of the American Union,'' 
considered in their relation to the constitution of the 
United States. Following this volume, at intervals 
of three or four years, two others were given by him 
to the public. In 1898 appeared from the Cam- 
bridge University Press a "Sketch of George Pea- 
body, and a History of the Peabody Education 
Fund through Thirty Years; " and in 1901 he pub- 
lished his last and perhaps his most valuable work — 
a "Civil History of the Government of the Con- 
federate States, with some Personal Reminiscences." 

Space does not admit of a discussion in these pages 
of Cm*ry's books. It is sufficient to say of them that 
they illustrate the writer's industry and ability; and 
are works of serious purpose and solid merit, though 
lacking in the charm and attractiveness of his spoken 
discourse. 

Of his volume on "The Southern States of the 
American Union," William L. Wilson, a fine and 
scholarly figure in recent American politics, wrote 
him a letter which has value and interest in the 
light of the course of events in the past fifteen years. 



THE PEABODY FUND AGAIN 343 

Office of Postmaster General, 
Washington, D. C, Nov. 28, 1895. 
My dear Doctor Curry: 

I have waited until I could look over the pages of the 
printed book, you so kindly permitted to read in MS. 
before sending you my acknowledgment of the copy you 
left for me at my office. To-day I have enjoyed for the 
first time an opportunity of re-reading some of its chapters, 
and I repeat, with unqualified emphasis, my first judg- 
ment: — That such a book ought to be written, and that 
you have written the needed volume. It seems to me to 
lack nothing in compactness, clearness, and unflinching 
truth of statement and historic authentication. 

To reconstruct ideas and opinions adverse to the South, 
in so far as they are founded on ignorance and prejudice, 
is becoming more and more the task of Sisyphus. Your 
book ought, at least, to restore the proper historic per- 
spective to the present generation of Southerners who are 
without ''prejudice," and to compel a re-examination of 
the record from the fair-minded and honest student of 
history in all sections. And it delights me to hear that 
it is having a large circulation. It cannot but influence 
the final judgment of the future. I cannot see how it 
could have been written by any one who had not lived 
in, and borne his part in, the great struggles of the last 
forty years; and coming from you, who have done so 
much, since the warlike part of those struggles ended, to 
restore fraternity of spirit as well as of political association, 
it ought to arrest the attention and reform the judgment 
of every teacher of history in college or university. You, 
and I, in my humble way, have felt that our highest duty 
to our own section lay in devotion to the best interests of 
the whole country, and in the steady advocacy of national 
issues great enough to wipe out sectionalism. I rejoiced 
in the great tariff struggle, not only because we were 
fighting for a true national policy, but because I saw how 
effectually the rise of that question had obliterated 



344 J. L. M. CUERY, A BIOaRAPHY 

geographical lines. To-day I have been more than usually- 
despondent, as I see how the folly of our Southern people 
in taking up a false and destructive issue, and assaulting 
the very foundations of public and private credit, are 
throwing away the solid fruits of the great victory, solidi- 
fying the North as it never was sohd in the burning days 
of reconstruction, and condemning the South to a position 
of inferiority, and of lessening influence in the Union, she 
has never before reached. I am amazed at the blind- 
ness of leaders and followers, and deeply feel its reflex 
influence on all the past record of that section; and how 
much harder it makes the task you have so conscientiously 
performed. 

But I must not use my leisure hour to inflict too long 
a letter on you. Let me thank you again for writing this 
volume, and tender my gratitude for the copy you have 
given me. 

Most sincerely yours, 

Wm. L. Wilson. 
Hon. J. L. M. Curey. 

Again and for the sixth time Curry sailed for 
Europe in January of 1895, and arrived at Rome on 
the first day of the following month, whither Mrs. 
Curry had preceded him. Here he visited his old 
friend, Cardinal RampoUa; and later spent some 
time in the island of Corfu, and in various points of 
Greece. A letter to his grandchildren displays the 
tender nature and eager, observing spirit which kept 
him young to the end: — 

On Steamer "Vesta," Adriatic Sea. 
19 Apr. 95. 
My dear CmLDREN: 

I send this congratulating Mary L. and Manly on their 
birthdays and wishing them health, happiness and pros- 
perity. 



THE PEABODY FUND AGAIN 345 

My last letter was posted at Corinth. By rail we 
travelled from there to Mycense, the home of Agamemnon, 
the leader of the Greeks in the Trojan war. Here Dr. 
Schlieman found the rich golden treasures in the royal 
tombs, of which I wrote you, as being preserved in the 
National Museum at Athens. By carriage we drove 
through the Argolese plain, fertile and dry, delightful in 
the twilight, to Nauplia. 

Naples. 21st. — En route to N. we visited the Herseon, 
the ancient national sanctuary of Argolis, corresponding 
to the Acropolis in Athens. We had to leave our carriage 
half an hour away and climb the rough ascent, but one 
of the young men met us and gave us a cordial welcome, 
and also a cup of refreshing tea. The excavations of 
late years have been made by, or under the supervision 
of various archaeological societies, Greek, German and 
American. These ruins are made by the American School. 
Work was suspended because of Easter, but we saw Hop- 
pin, Tilton, Rogers and others. These and others are 
distinguished graduates of our universities, who receive 
fellowships because of their excellent scholarships. 

Epidaurus, on the east of the Peloponnesus, has a most 
magnificent and well-preserved ruin of a temple, which is 
very large and was constructed against a semi-circular 
mountain. The acoustics were very remarkable. From 
the uppermost seat, 190 feet distant from and 75 feet 
above the orchestra, a low tone of voice could be heard. 
Here also was a temple for the cult of iEsculapius, the god 
of healing. One is puzzled to know how these immense and 
costly structures could have been built in a country not 
densely populated and not rich. We wandered over the 
remains of these old buildings, put up 2500 years ago and 
were compensated for an all-day carriage ride. 

Nauplia is built on a kind of promontory, projecting 
into the sea, was the first capitol of the modern Greek 
kingdom, is the seat of an arch-episcopate, and has some 
commerce. We were there during Good Friday and 



346 J. L. M. CUERY, A BIOGRAPHY 

Easter evening, and going on the night before Easter, or 
rather at the midnight of Easter, was a grand rehgious 
ceremony. The church was packed with people, each one 
of whom, old or young, male and female, held in hand a 
long unlighted candle. When the clock struck twelve, 
the archbishop in his clerical vestments, a tall handsome 
man, came through a narrow door, behind the main altar, 
holding a silver candelabra with six branches, each having 
a lighted candle. On his appearance, many, mainly 
boys, rushed forward to light their candles. The arch- 
bishop drew back and reproved the irreverfent eagerness, 
and then less violently, candles were lit from his. As he 
opened the door, I should have said that he proclaimed, 
"The Lord is risen indeed." The whole assembly pro- 
ceeded to the plaza in front of the church, where a rude 
but decorated platform was erected. On it were seated 
or standing military and civil officers and the archbishop. 
When the last read the Evangel, a procession was formed, 
which marched through the streets, singing, firing crack- 
ers, shooting off rockets and giving vent to their joy, 
which however interesting to them, kept us from sleep- 
ing. 

Looking out, early Easter morning, on the square in 
front of the hotel, we saw the soldiers roasting their 
paschal lambs or sheep, cleaned and disemboweled, the 
carcass had thrust through it, from head to tail, a long 
pole or spit, which by two men, was slowly revolved, near 
embers or ashes until the meat was thoroughly roasted 
and looked very appetizing. Some kind of sauce, the in- 
gredients of which were salt, pepper and lemon juice (not 
vinegar) was, from time to time, put upon the turning 
body. Easter, besides being a religious festival, is a 
national holiday, and little work is done in shop or field, 
until the following Thursday. Every family, even the 
poorest, has a lamb roasted, and this consumption of 
mutton helps to account for the great number of sheep 
which are to be found in Greece. We saw thousands, 



THE PEABODY FUND AGAIN 347 

which in a few days, will be driven to the mountains for 
pasturage. On the streets and in the villages we saw the 
lambs roasting, and officers and soldiers take meals to- 
gether, for Easter equalizes all ranks. 

I had long had a desire to see a baptism performed after 
the Greek ritual and on Easter night I had the curiosity 
gratified. The ceremony took about 20 minutes for its 
performance, and was participated in by priests, respon- 
sive choristers, mother, godfather, and witnessed by 
about thirty persons. Places of honor were assigned to 
us and after the baptism, parents, priests, and others 
shook hands with us. A tin basin, near the middle of the 
church, was more than half filled with water and oil was 
added, while the priest read the ritual. He made a cross 
with his hand three times in the water; subsequently 
breathed upon it three times, each time making a cross in 
the water. The child having been undressed was held by 
the godfather, and the priest anointed head, hands and feet 
with oil, and then besmeared the body. Soon afterwards, 
he immersed the little fellow, about six months old, three 
times in the water, in the name of the Father, of the Son, 
and of the Holy Spirit. When the clothes were put on, 
a charge was given to the godfather, who repeated it to 
the mother. I was asked to name the child, but as neither 
Jabez nor Lamar could be readily Grecized, I suggested 
William, the name of my friend, Mr. Kingsland, who 
was rich and believed in baptism of babies. It is the 
custom for the one who gives the name to give a suit of 
clothes, and my friend readily "shelled out" twenty dol- 
lars in gold. When we were in the train the next morning, 
father, mother, baby, brothers, grandparents came to 
take leave of us, evidently pleased that "Gulielmus" had 
such a good start in life. 

We had a long day's travel to reach Patras, our road, 
as when we visited Athens, skirting the Gulf of Corinth. 
It is a pity that the Canal between the Gulf and the 
Eastern waters is too narrow a shelter for large vessels, 



348 J. L. M. CUREY, A BIOGRAPHY 

as the route would be most charming for visitors to the 
classic land. 

During our stay in the Peloponnesus we had the services 
of an industrious and polite dragoman, who was a good 
commissary and quartermaster, and an unscrupulous 
extortioner. 

The night we reached Patras, about twelve o'clock, 
a fire broke out near the hotel and all the town gathered 
to witness the sight. We packed trunk and bags and 
made ready for a precipitate exodus, but were saved that 
experience. 

To-morrow Dr. Taylor and I will start to Sicily. 

With best love from both of us to all, we are, 
Yours lovingly, 

J. L. M. CUKRY. 

Manly Curry Turpin, 
Mary Lamar Turpin, 

Americus, Georgia. 

May found him and his wife in Florence, where 
he gave sittings to a sculptor for a marble bust, 
which was completed in the following November. 
In March he met Goldwin Smith and left a little 
thumb-nail sketch of him which is worth quoting: — 

In 1861, Arnold wrote of him, ''personally, a most able, 
in some respects even interesting man." At a dinner at 
which he was present in Washington City, 26 March, 1896, 
he seemed to me to be a soured, discontented man. Of 
Chamberlain, ''able without morals;" Gladstone, "writes 
on theology and science about which he is ignorant;" 
Palmerston, "a Russophobist; " Napoleon, "wanted 
European recognition, and brought on the Crimean War," 
which all regretted afterwards. He (Smith) saw no reason 
why Russia should not have an outlet to Mediterranean. 
"The Jews are getting behind the press, in Europe and 
America." 



THE PEABODY FUND AGAIN 349 

During the years 1896 and 1897 Curry appears to 
have been especially interested in those concerted 
movements in America in favor of the World's 
Peace, which were then claiming, and have since 
continued to claim wide attention. At Washington 
in April, 1896, a National Arbitration Conference 
for the promotion of international arbitration, at 
which more than forty states of the Union were 
represented, was in session for two days. Curry 
was appointed by this assembly one of a committee 
of five, with George F. Edmunds, James B. Angell, 
Henry Hitchcock, and Gardiner G. Hubbard, to 
prepare and present to the President of the United 
States a memorial in behalf of the accompanying 
resolution of the Conference; and this memorial was 
personally presented to Mr. Cleveland by a sub- 
committee composed of Messrs. Curry and Hubbard 
on May 14th. Curry's interest in international 
arbitration is again evidenced in January, 1897, by 
the following entry in this journal: — 

January 18. — At 5 p. m. at Hon. John W. Foster's 
attended a conference to promote the ratification of the 
Anglo-American Treaty. 

In this connection at subsequent dates appeared 
in the journal these entries, significant of his con- 
tinued attitude towards the great question of the 
World's Peace: — 

February 27, 1897. — Called and took leave of President 
Cleveland. Evidently moved. Had little to encourage 
him, amid so much partisanship and treachery except 
assurance of confidence of friends and the consciousness 
of duty done. It seemed as if some Senators were trying 



350 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

to precipitate a war with Spain. Had gloomy forebodings 
as to party and country. 

March 28, 1898. — To the House, and heard President 
McKinley's Message transmitting Report of Court of 
Inquiry on *' Maine '^ disaster. 

Galleries packed. 

March 29. — Dinner to Senator Gorman by Governor 
Carroll. Mr. Thompson, Senators Allison, Gray, and 
Hale, Speaker Reed, Justice White, Mr. Barrett, Ad- 
miral , General , and myself. All 

opposed to war. Speaker and Senators despondent; 
thought insane war feeling would plunge us into untold 
trouble. 

On October 6, 1896, a special committee of the 
Peabody Board of Trustees met in New York City, 
to consider the expediency of terminating the Trust 
in the following February. After due deliberation, 
they decided to report an adverse judgment; and at 
the meeting of the Board the next day, the decision 
of the committee was unanimously confirmed. 
Curry submitted his annual Report; and was re- 
elected General Agent. 

Perhaps no year of his career was a busier one in 
the work done by him with State legislatures than 
was that of 1897. 

He appeared before the legislative bodies of the 
States of North Carolina, Arkansas, Texas, Florida 
and Georgia, and made addresses on behalf of edu- 
cation. 

Uninterrupted and incessant work was the main- 
spring of his life. His interest in life never failed 
him and he could not deny himself to popular de- 
mand. When not urging upon State legislative 
assemblies the importance and necessities of edu- 
cating the people, his energies were spent in other 



THE PEABODY FUND AGAIN 351 

directions no less significant. In 1898 he addressed, 
among other bodies and gatherings of influence, the 
Constitutional Convention of the State of Louisiana; 
and he spoke later in the year at the opening of the 
Domestic Science Building at Hampton, upon the 
thirtieth anniversary of the foundation of the 
Hampton School. On the fourth of July, at Chicago, 
he delivered an address to the assembled faculties, 
students and patrons of the University of Chicago 
on the '^Principles, Acts, and Utterances of John C. 
Calhoun, Promotive of the True Union of the States.'' 

With all his unabated loyalty to the people of his 
section of the Union, and to the memories of the 
tremendous conflict in which they had once engaged 
in behalf of their view of constitutional liberty, it 
may be said of Curry with absolute truthfulness, 
that the most impressive thing about him in his 
post-bellum period was his intense and shining 
Americanism. He must figure always in the thought 
of those, who know his life and have followed hij 
career, rather as an American than as an Alabamian 
or a Virginian or a Southerner. He had believed in 
his youth, with a passionate belief, in the theoretical 
ethics of secession. He did not change that belief 
in his old age, and after varied experiences. Calhoun 
was second only to Aristotle in his regard; albeit 
the flag of the Union stirred his highest eloquence, 
and the great, unrended nation, with its dreams, its 
needs, its perils, its ideals had come to appeal to him 
as did nothing else on earth. 

At the moment, on the 4th of July, in that summer 
of 1898, when he was making this address, just men- 
tioned, before the University of Chicago, in the 
waters about Santiago the American warships were 



352 J. L. M. CUEEY, A BIOGRAPHY 

thundering out the knell of Spanish rule within the 
Western Hemisphere. As he was defending, with all 
the power and passion of his mind and heart, the 
constitutional orthodoxy of the great South Carolin- 
ian's theory of the Federal Government, at intervals 
a messenger boy would arrive upon the scene with a 
telegram; and the proceedings were interrupted, 
while the announcement was read of the destruction 
of another and yet another Spanish ship, amid the 
patriotic applause of the audience. Then the speaker 
would turn to the Star-Spangled Banner, draping the 
platform, and make it the basis of an appeal for unity 
and nationality; and after the applause had died 
away, would revert again to Calhoun and his great 
philosophy of government, without a lost note in his 
eloquence. 

To have passed a morning with John Caldwell 
Calhoun, Santiago and the American flag vividly en- 
twined before the face of an American audience, was 
something more than interesting or dramatic in the 
man who accomplished it. In it an essential charac- 
teristic of his being stood revealed. His real genius 
and passion were for adaptability to environment 
without the surrender of principle, — for sympathy 
with his time, — for service on the side of its better 
forces, — for the future, despite the past. Two letters 
referring to this address from antipodal sources illus- 
trate vividly his power of appeal and the strength 
of his contention: — 

54 Wall Street, New York, ^ 

, , T^ r. January 20th, 1898. 

My dear Dr. Curry: 

Thank you very much for yours of the 17th. I can 

hardly tell you how much I value your favorable opinion, 

even while I think it too eulogistic. 



THE PEABODY FUND AGAIN 353 

To say the truth I was not in very good trim while 
writing it and feared that it was a mere collection of 
common-places. I came to think a little better of it 
before I delivered it, and after hearing what you and others 
have said, I am quite puffed up. 

You have a very interesting subject to deal with at 
Chicago. I have long been of the belief that the ani- 
mating motive of all the later of Mr. Calhoun's efforts 
was his love of the Union and his deep concern lest it 
should fail, — not that he would sacrifice the South to 
it, — I do not expect men to give up kindred and firesides — 
but the fear which harassed him without cessation was 
that the feeling between North and South would be 
brought to such a point and so influence action, that a 
rupture would follow. 

You may not find so concurring an audience as I did. 

With very high esteem and regard. 
Truly yours, 

James C. Carter. 
J. L. M. Curry, LL.D. 

157 State Street, Montpelier, Vt. 
My dear old Friend : 

I have no words adequately to express my admiration 
of your wonderfully condensed and powerful statement 
of the respective rights of the States and the delegated 
powers of the General Government. 

I can hardly keep silence when I hear our young people, 
the future conservators of our liberties, prating about 
''the arbitrament of war settling the question of the right 
of secession" and I am very glad you explained that war 
neither settled or impaired any fundamental right, though 
it might prove the power to nullify it for a time. 

Your explanation of the primary cause of Mr. Calhoun's 
nullification theory is the one which those who knew him 
best always recognized — his overweening love for the 



354 J. L. M. CUREY, A BIOGEAPHY 

Union and passionate desire to preserve it, which caused 
him to overlook the dangers of the remedy he advocated. 

Your whole address forcibly reminds me of the appeals 
to which I have listened with breathless attention from 
dear Mr. Calhoun in the last years of his life when his 
mind dominated his fragile body so entirely that it rose 
almost into the realms of omniscient foresight and poured 
out the cumulative wisdom of his noble statesmanship 
in such terse argument that the loss of a word or part of 
a sentence seemed a misfortune. 

Old and feeble as I am I should have been glad to go to 
Chicago to hear one more "old man eloquent," one more 
large minded statesman with "hands unstained with 
plunder" plead for the restoration of our inalienable 
liberty — and resting his efforts not on the adventitious 
aid and appeals of that eloquence of which I know you 
to be a past master, but on the clear concise recital of 
great truths based upon incontrovertible authority. 

I never could understand the basic stability of Russia's 
despotism until I discovered in reading a history of the 
country that every little hamlet has its community in- 
dependence with which the general despotism dare not 
interfere. 

I have for some time wanted to ask a favor of you. My 
husband's tombstone can only receive 100 words of 
epitaph, and it is now ready for that so that it can be set 
in place before his statue, when it is finished, can be 
erected and unveiled in October next. Will you send me 
one for it. I have asked the same favor from several 
friends in different parts of the South so that I may get 
one of which all who loved him will approve and will then 
try to choose the one most suitable for it. May I have 
one from you? An epitaph is to me the verdict of his 
contemporaries and I attach great importance to it for 
posterity. 

I am living here getting such comfort as I can from the 
magnificent scenery and the quiet of this little New 



THE PEABODY FUND AGAIN 355 

England town and shall not leave here until the end of 
September when I shall return to New York. I went 
South last Spring and dismantled my house as the risk 
of leaving valuable things there was great, and without 
my darling I could not hve in that isolated place alone. 
Now I ''find my warmest welcome in an inn" and for 
the little time left to me on earth it is easier than house- 
keeping — and I feel like a lotus eater — and am willing 
to float without resistance to circumstance. 

With much love to Mrs. Curry and thanks for your 
address, 

Yours affectionately, 

V. Jefferson Davis. 

July 31st, 1898. 

On November 12, 1898, Curry and his wife, in com- 
pany with several intimate friends, sailed for Naples. 
They spent a month or more at Baiae and other 
places in the vicinity, in an atmosphere of old world 
memories and Horatian measures; and in the last 
days of December crossed the Mediterranean, and 
sojourned for a month or more of the New Year in 
Egypt. There they were presented to the Khedive; 
and amid the ancient glories of the Pyramids and the 
impressive ruins of Karnak and of Thebes, Curry's 
thoughts turned first of all to, and remained longest 
with the Egyptian schools. The heroic stories of 
Omdurman and Khartum — of the wild charge of the 
white-robed dervishes and the fate of '^ Chinese Gor- 
don" — all came in for their full share of eager atten- 
tion; but his most earnest contemplation of Egypt 
was of its missions and of the agencies of education 
developing in the ancient land. 

Leaving the Nile Valley on St. Valentine's Day, 
they reached Naples again on the 17th of February; 



356 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

and after spending a few days in Rome, Monte Carlo 
and Paris, Curry and his wife arrived at New York in 
the latter part of March. 

Under date of April 6, 1899, he writes in his 
diary: — 

Called on President McKinley, who received me cor- 
dially. I told him Lord Cromer's opinion that the 
government of Cuba and Porto Rico would be found more 
difficult than that of the Philippines; and he said he con- 
curred, especially as to Cuba. 

In June, 1899, Curry was elected the second Presi- 
dent of the recently established Educational Con- 
ference that met at Capon Springs, West Virginia. 
Bishop Dudley of Kentucky had preceded him in the 
presidency of the Capon Springs Conference, and 
Dudley had been succeeded in that office by Mr. 
Robert C. Ogden of New York. 

The fourth Conference, which would have met ac- 
cording to custom at Capon Springs, was diverted by 
the death of the proprietor of the hotel at that place 
to Winston-Salem, N. C. Here, under the inspiring in- 
fluence and untiring energy of the new President, Mr. 
Robert C. Ogden, were set in motion the forces that 
finally resulted in the organization of the Southern 
Education Board in New York City on Novem- 
ber 3, 1901. Dr. Curry was present at the organiza- 
tion of this new and vital force in American educa- 
tional life, was made its supervising director, and 
seemed to perceive with great insight and enthusiasm 
the meaning of the organization which was being 
formed to carry forward and vitalize the plans for 
which he had long dreamed and worked. His asso- 
ciates were Robert C. Ogden, the President of the 



THE PEABODY FUND AGAIN 357 

Board, George Foster Peabody, Charles D. Mclver, 
Charles W. Dabney, Edwin A. Alderman, Wallace 
Buttrick, Hollis B. Frizzell, W. H. Baldwin, Albert 
Shaw, Walter H. Page, and Edgar Gardner Murphy. 
The occasion was characterized by Curry's splendid 
optimism; and his genial humor and forceful elo- 
quence distinguished the banquet, which was at- 
tended by a notable company to greet the new 
force for good. 

This Board was a natural and inevitable off spring of 
the activities of the Peabody Foundation. The great 
need in Southern life was the formation of a power- 
ful public opinion for popular education. Curry, fast 
feeling the touch of the years, could not alone accom- 
plish this task, though his strength were as the 
strength of ten. Public opinion in such great social 
movements must be continually strengthened and 
enlightened. This Board took up that task and may be 
said to have accomplished an amazing total of good 
in its short life. So untechnical and inspirational 
have been its influences, that it is difficult to describe 
them in any brief space. It had no funds to distribute 
to educational institutions. It sought to ally itself 
with State and local agencies. Its purpose has been 
steadily not to obtrude, but to efface itself in the 
interests of the people. Its fundamental principle 
was profound faith in the self-reliance and creative 
power of the people of the South. Its supreme desire 
was simply to help a great people struggling with 
the most difficult group of problems ever presented 
for solution to a democratic society. Its funda- 
mental aims were to increase the habit of self-help 
among a people overburdened, but proud, and rightly 
determined to mould their institutions after their 



358 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

own way and with their own means. Mr. Edgar 
Gardner Murphy in a clear statement before the 
National Education Association in 1906 thus suc- 
cinctly defines the functions of the Board as then 
outlined: — 

The chief function of the Board has been the winning 
of rural communities to a larger policy of local taxation 
for school purposes. In States where the unit of taxation 
has been the county, assistance has been given to the 
"county campaign," the representatives of the Board 
helping in the organization of public meetings, defraying 
the actual expenses of effective speakers, creating and 
circulating the literature of the subject, and co-operating 
with the local educational leaders in an effort to secure 
an affirmative popular vote on the question of a larger 
local tax for the benefit of the schools. 

Where the unit of taxation is the school district, the 
same methods are employed; the Board working here, as 
always, solely through the authorized and accepted 
agencies of the locality concerned. These local cam- 
paigns have powerfully affected the general school legis- 
lation of the State. State funds — heretofore the chief 
resource of the Southern school system — have rapidly 
increased, in a number of States, from 50 to 100 per cent, 
during the past five years. Local organizations of 
women for the improvement of rural schoolhouses have 
been established; or, in cases where such activities have 
already existed, they have been strengthened and 
equipped for still larger work. The movements for the 
formation of school libraries, for the development of high 
schools, for agricultural education and manual training 
have all received recognition and reinforcement. The 
Board does not assume that the educational awakening 
of the South has been due to its initiative, for that great 
movement was born in the South, had become irresistible 
before the formation of the Board, and has been carried 



THE PEABODY FUND AGAIN 359 

forward by Southern leaders, but its vital part in this 
arousal of popular enthusiasm for the common schools is 
generally recognized. Its activities have been conspic- 
uous and at many points decisive. 

In the year 1910, still under the Presidency of Rob- 
ert C. Ogden, and assisted by the fine technical skill 
and statesmanlike grasp of Wyckliffe Rose, the suc- 
cessor to Curry as General Agent of the Peabody 
Fund, this Board is busily at work in cordial co-op- 
eration with the State authorities of every Southern 
State, upon the greatest and most pressing of our 
present educational tasks, the unification of the 
State's educational forces. In October, 1902, Curry 
attended his last meeting of this Board whose aims 
and policies he so cordially approved. His appear- 
ance at that time greatly moved his associates. His 
handsome face was drawn with pain and his graceful 
figure wasted by suffering, and in his eyes those who 
loved him saw, with unspeakable pain, the look that 
betokens the sight of another world. But he at- 
tended to his duties, met his friends with the high 
courtesy that sat so well upon him, and bore himself 
like a proud man who does not fear death nor any- 
thing but failure to bear his share of the work to be 
done. His inability to attend the Athens Confer- 
ence in the Spring had elicited this characteristically 
modest letter from the president of the Conference : — 

New York, June 6, 1902. 
Hon. J. L. M. Curry, 

Care Morgan, Harges & Co., 

Paris, France. 
My dear Dr. Curry : 

I am in your debt for two recent favors, the last under 
date of May 25th, at hand this morning. You were 



360 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

respectfully and gratefully remembered throughout the 
entire Athens Conference, and, although your absence 
was deeply felt, your spiritual presence was constantly 
in evidence. Both for our sake and yours I regret that 
you could not take part in and observe the development 
of the ideas in which we are so deeply interested and the 
broadening sympathy with which they are received. 
We, of course, all understand the delicacy of our work, 
and therefore it is a great satisfaction that the Conference 
proceeded from start to finish with a manly expression 
of opinion and yet without any interruption to the spirit 
of the harmony. 

My own relation to the whole affair is much like that of 
a conductor to a street car, my duty being to ring the bell 
for the starting and stopping and so much intent upon 
the progress of the vehicle that I cannot take in very 
clearly what the passengers are talking about. There- 
fore I lose a great deal of the instruction and inspiration 
that I would prefer to receive. 

The more comprehensive our knowledge of the needs, 
and appreciation of the delicacy of the question with 
which we are involved, the more stupendous does the 
task appear to me to be. Considered in the mass — hope- 
less; taken up in detail — full of encouraging signs. Just 
when and how it is all to work out I do not see clearly, 
but have the faith that, because right is right, it will 
eventually result in conditions that will make for peace 
and prosperity of our common country. 

All of your friends and the people everywhere have been 
delighted over the success of your mission to Spain, and 
we hope that you are now to have such a period of rest 
as will bring both you and Mrs. Curry back with renewed 
strength. 

Your grand-daughter was most welcome to all the 
guests on our Southern excursion. At Athens we had 
three other young women from the South, who accom- 
panied us all the way round to New York. To the entire 



THE PEABODY FUND AGAIN 361 

company this group of four Southern girls seemed the 
crowning grace of our excursion. 

Very sincerely yours, 

Robert C. Ogden. 

The development of the common schools seemed 
to Curry the great fundamental proposition in social 
progress; and his estimate of its significance is illus- 
trated by a paragraph contained in the last annual 
Report that he ever made to the Peabody Board. 

It should be a cardinal maxim that the true purpose of 
the school is to fit the child for the duties of the man, to 
train the whole man in right-mindedness, in personal 
worth, in character shaped by truth and duty, in the 
knowledge and achievements necessary for the life of the 
citizen. That was a striking remark of Governor Russell : 
*' There is an everlasting difference between making a 
living and making a Ufe." 

Two more interesting items, belonging to the year 
1899, may be chosen for chronicle here, out of a 
great number that might be noted if space permitted. 
On November 2nd and 3rd was held at Washington 
a meeting of the National University Committee; 
and Curry and his wife entertained the Committee 
at dinner. For a number of years their home had 
been in Washington in order to facilitate the work 
he had in hand. A Washington newspaper gave the 
following account of this function: — 

Hon. J. L. M. Curry, a member of the National Uni- 
versity Committee, gave a dinner last night to his col- 
leagues. The guests were President Eliot of Harvard; 
President Harper of Chicago University; President Alder- 
man of the University of North Carohna; President 
Wilson of Washington and Lee; President Draper of 



362 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

Illinois University; Justices Brewer and Brown of the 
Supreme Court; Assistant Secretary Hill of the State 
Department; Mr. Langley of the Smithsonian; Mr. 
Kapon of the Bering Sea Commission; Superintendents 
Maxwell and Soldan, of the city schools of New York and 
St. Louis; Professor Murray Butler of Columbia Uni- 
versity; Mr. Dougherty, late President of the National 
Education Association; Mr. Canfield, Librarian of Colum- 
bia University; Dr. Harris of the Bureau of Education; 
Mr. Putnam of the Library of Congress; and Mr. Proctor 
of the Civil Service Commission. 

In December the following entry occurs in his 
journal: — 

B. F. Johnson, book publisher, of Richmond, Va., pro- 
poses a series of ten historical volumes, to be prepared by 
competent authors, and invites me to be editor-in-chief. 

Men had not yet lost confidence in the veteran 
educator and scholar's power for usefulness, though 
he had already passed beyond the mark of the 
Psalmist's three-score years and ten. 

During a considerable part of this year, he suffered, 
as his diary shows, frequent and painful attacks of 
kidney trouble. On the 18th of June he notes that 
he began ''electrical treatment." These physical 
disabilities, however, — premonitory as they were, — 
were not sufficient to daunt his restless spirit, or to 
give pause to his energy in public service. Respon- 
sibilities did not cease to increase upon him; yet the 
natural fires of his genius continued to burn with 
unabated flame. Besides attending to his accus- 
tomed duties as General Agent of the Peabody and 
Slater Funds, in visiting and addressing schools, 
legislatures and educational meetings, he made many 



THE PEABODY FUND AGAIN 363 

occasional addresses of a more general character. 
In May, 1900, he attended a ^'Race Conference'^ at 
Montgomery, Alabama, where, as has been hereto- 
fore mentioned, his voice almost alone was one of 
hope for the future of the negro through education; 
on June 12 he delivered an address at the University 
of Virginia, taking for his theme the noble subject of 
^^Law and Liberty," the Scotch-Irishman's motto, 
since the day of McNeill and *Hhe Red Hand of 
Ulster; " and discussing the subject with a wealth 
of argument and of illustration that emphasized 
the duty and the opportunity of the South, to be 
accomplished through the work of its educated young 
men. In October he visited Tulane University, 
and delivered an address. 

Under the date of November 26, 1900, occurs the 
following entry in the journal: — 

Mary and I went to Baltimore; she to see the dress- 
maker, I to see Dr. Oilman, whose proposed resignation 
of the Presidency of Johns Hopkins University, to take 
effect at the end of the session, has been widely pub- 
lished and commented on. He suggested that he would 
like, in conjunction with my work and Southern visits, 
to give much of the remainder of his life, after thirty-five 
years in college and university work, to the study of 
Education in the South. 

This entry is but little more than an echo of the 
many similar ones that appear from time to time in 
Curry's diaries, showing how often and how sym- 
pathetically the two men had before this time dis- 
cussed a subject which so interested each of them. 

In April, 1901, he attended the Fourth Conference 
for Education in the South, held at Winston-Salem, 



364 J. L. M. CUREY, A BIOGRAPHY 

North Carolina; and in June of this year he made 
the commencement address before the Literary- 
Societies of the University of Georgia upon the occa- 
sion of its centennial celebration. 

Fourteen years earlier, he had received from this 
institution the degree of Doctor of Laws; and sixty 
years before this centennial date, he had been a 
student within its walls, and a member of one of the 
Societies that he now addressed. 

The Peabody Trust whose work he was soon to 
lay down actively will always have a peculiar and 
tender significance to the people of the South. Con- 
ceived in sympathy, administered with tact and 
diplomacy, and yet with farsightedness and justice, 
it came at just the nick of time, and did a funda- 
mental service. It was a small endowment, as we now 
measure such things, though at the time it attracted 
the attention of the civilized world and helped to win 
for its giver a resting place in Westminster Abbey. 
Its income was never much in excess of $150,000, yet 
it sought to establish an enduring system of common 
schools in the Southern States for both races. This 
daring program practically succeeded, because its 
policy of stimulation to self help touched a self- 
reliant and resilient population. Sears was a man 
of genius and diplomacy in school organization. 
Curry was a man of inspiration before the masses. 
By the time Curry assumed control, three-fifths of 
all income went to teacher training and two-fifths 
to special cases of public school development. Four 
great enduring achievements may be claimed as the 
result of Curry's administration: — 

1. The estabUshment of State Normal Schools for 
each race in twelve Southern States. 



THE PEABODY FUND AGAIN 365 

2. The establishment of a system of pubhc graded 
schools everywhere in the cities and small towns. 

3. The establishment, in the minds of legislators, 
of the rural, common school as an everlasting respon- 
sibility. 

4. The production of a body of literature by Curry 
in his forty reports and ten published addresses 
which appealed to a people undertaking such a task 
as assuming responsibility for the education of all 
the people, as no body of literature had done since 
Jefferson's stirring appeals and classic definitions. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

THE BIRTHDAY OF A KING 

In the first month of 1902, Mrs. Curry was the 
recipient of the following note, written from Paris, 
in a strong feminine hand, on both sides of a four by- 
five card, which bore the Spanish insignia of roy- 
alty:— 

January 28th, 1902. 
My Dear Mrs. Curry: 

I am so happy to hear that Mr. Curry is appointed 
Special Envoy to Madrid upon the coming of age of our 
King, next May. I shall be there, and I am looking for- 
ward, with great joy, to meet you again. I imagine you 
will first stop in Paris, and in that case, most probably, I 
shall have the pleasure of seeing you also here; as I do not 
think I shall leave for Madrid before May. 

With kind regards to all yours, believe me as ever, 
Your very affectionate friend, 

EULALIA. 

It was a kindly note, that a Spanish princess 
should have written to an American lady, at a time 
when the memories of the sea fight at Santiago were 
still very fresh in the minds of American men, and 
very bitter in those of Spaniards; and it indicates 
the personal hold — the fine attachment — which the 
Currys had made upon the hearts and minds of the 
best of those with whom they had been thrown dur- 
ing their sojourn at Madrid. 

On January 27, 1902, Curry wrote in his journal 

366 



THE BIRTHDAY OF A KING 367 

the following note, in which he places, before the 
record of his appointment as emissary to the Spanish 
Court, a memorial of his election into the oldest 
Greek-letter society of America, founded in the first 
year of the Revolution by a coterie of noble young 
spirits at the ancient capital of WilHamsburg, Vir- 
ginia, — a society, whose motto: ^'Philosophy, the 
guide of life," had been so singularly illustrated in 
his own career: — 

Notice of election to membership in the Phi Beta Kappa 
Society of William and Mary. 

Had a pleasant interview with President Roosevelt in 
reference to my Mission to Spain, — in reference to title. 

1st. He thought it was or should be Ambassador. 

2nd. There would be a Secretary. 

3rd. As to compensation, referred to Secretary Hay. 

4th. As to address on presentation, asked me to reduce 
to form, and submit to him. 

On February 17 the commission and letter of 
credence as Special Envoy to Spain were received 
from the Secretary of State. On March 31 Curry 
called on the President, and submitted the proposed 
presentation address, which was cordially approved. 
A week later the following letter reached him from 
Secretary Hay: — 

Department of State, 
Washington, April 7, 1902. 

Dear Doctor Curry: 

Spain having indicated a wish that you should come as 
an Ambassador Extraordinary on Special Mission, the 
President has issued a new commission and a new letter of 
credence to you in that quality. These are sent to you 
to-day with a new instruction to accord therewith, all 



368 J. L. M. CUERY, A BIOGRAPHY 

bearing the date of the old papers, which are cancelled and 
should be returned to the Department. 

Very truly yours, 

John Hay. 
Enclosures as above. 
Doctor J. L. M. Curry, 
etc., etc., etc., 
Washington. 

On Monday, April 14th, Curry went to Baltimore 
for a consultation concerning his health with Dr. 
William Osier of Johns Hopkins. 

On April 18 Curry, with his wife and niece, Mrs. 
Connally Coxe, and a trained nurse, sailed on the 
''Staatdam.'' '' It was his 19th crossing.'' They 
were joined in Paris by Mr. R. Simpkins of Boston, 
who had been appointed Secretary for this special 
mission. 

Ten days later Curry and his party landed at 
Boulogne, whence they proceeded to Paris. Here 
they called by appointment on Mrs. Curry's friend, 
the Infanta Eulalia, and Queen Isabel, who received 
them with many marks of courtesy and cordiality. 
Upon their arrival at Madrid, they were met at the 
station by the Duke of Almodovar, Minister of 
Foreign Affairs, Mr. Sickles and many other Spanish 
dignitaries. The Marquis of Villalobar, an old 
and intimate friend, had with that extreme thought- 
fulness that characterized the actions of the Spanish 
Government at that time been appointed Special 
Aide to the American Ambassador. Nothing could 
have exceeded the lavish hospitality which was ex- 
tended to the Curry s, not only as America's repre- 
sentatives on such a great occasion, but as old and 
well remembered friends, who had never been for- 



THE BIRTHDAY OF A KING 369 

gotten by those who had known them, during their 
stay many years before. A beautiful villa was put 
at their disposal with many servants, guards and 
sentinels and all the details of luxurious living, from 
a carriage of the Royal Stables, with its men in full 
Royal livery, to the writing paper, and menu cards — 
all of which bore the Royal coat-of-arms. 

On the 15th of April Curry writes in his diary: — 

At 10 Secretary Simpkins and I, with Villalobar, went 
to the Palace and had an audience of Queen and King, and 
the Prince of Asturias. 

His address on this occasion, which has been pre- 
served among his papers, is not without interest as 
illustrating what an American citizen, clothed with 
the dignity of Ambassador Extraordinary, should say 
to a long-descended ruler, by the grace of God, ar- 
riving at his majority. 

Ciu-ry said: — 

I am charged as special Ambassador Extraordinary to 
bear you the greetings of the President and of the Govern- 
ment of the United States, as you stand with joyous ex- 
pectation on the threshold of hope and progress, and to 
felicitate you on a long life, blessed by the example and 
spirit and teachings of a noble and world-honored mother, 
and to assure you of most cordial sympathy and co-opera- 
tion in all efforts for development of resources, for adher- 
ence to the basal principles of law and order, and for the 
settlement of all differences on the basis of the equality of 
nations and stability of just governments. Science has 
made all the world akin, and no god, Terminus, stands at 
artificial barriers to arrest the flow of good-will or mutual 
helpfulness. 

The object of this mission is to confirm anew the former 
utterances of my country's honored representative, and to 
reassure, in most emphatic manner, the earnest desire of 



370 J. L. M. CUERY, A BIOGRAPHY 

the President and of the people, to cement in indissoluble 
bonds the friendship of the new nations. There can be no 
political antagonism, no well-founded or enduring antip- 
athy, between two peoples alike anxious of, and equally 
purposing, the closest relations of amity. This mission is 
the strongest assurance, — may it be the guarantee, — of 
peace and friendship, of social and commercial intercourse, 
in the pursuit of a common end, a nobler civilization, 
choosing the good, rejecting the evil. 

The well-being of one nation is a factor in the well-being 
of all; and I voice the universal sentiment of my country 
when I say Spain and the United States should be inter- 
linked in chains of mutual interest, good will and happi- 
ness. America can never forget, must always honor, 
Spain's early and commanding history, her unquestioned 
superiority in the arts of policy and of war, her pre-emi- 
nence in art and literature, her chivalrous courage, tenac- 
ity of conviction, irrepressible vitality; and all nations will 
give her glad welcome as she springs forward to her an- 
cient prestige, in rivalry for good government, for universal 
education, for accomplishing by best method, best skill, 
best abilities, best standards of action and belief, what 
will promote international harmony, domestic prosperity, 
and larger freedom. Peace is not a period of preparation 
for war, a whetting of swords for another conflict. It has 
a deeper, a diviner meaning, — the emulation of a brother- 
hood, which by infrangible bonds of a common interest and 
by international arbitration will make wars impossible. 

As I was one of the first to hear the glad proclamation. 
Viva el Rey! from the lips of the present distinguished 
Premier, I come, for country and for self, after the lapse 
of sixteen years, to invoke blessings upon your Majesty 
and the Kingdom, and to wish for you abounding pros- 
perity and happiness. 

Curry remarks of the King, in his diary, as a com- 
ment upon the occasion: — 



THE BIRTHDAY OF A KING 371 

He is a well-grown boy, and impressed me rather favor- 
bly; and does not seem as fragile as I expected. 

On the following day Curry was a guest at the 
royal banquet at the Palace, and occupied a place 
of honor near the King. On the same day he was 
the recipient, at the hands of the government, of the 
decoration of the Royal Order of Charles III. 

On Saturday, May 17, he writes in his journal: — 

Lovely day. At 2 to Congress to witness the taking of 
the oath by the King in presence of the Royal family, 
Cortes, Diplomatic Corps, foreign representatives. Much 
enthusiasm. Young King behaved well. 

Went to church, where to a crowded house, the Te Deum 
was sung. King, Queen, Royal family, government, etc., 
present. 

At night Mary and I dined with Sir H. M. Durand of 
the British Embassy. Then rode through the packed and 
brilliantly illuminated streets. 

For nearly a week longer the Currys remained at 
Madrid, participating in the various functions and 
festivities that adorned and characterized a gala 
occasion. On May 22 they left the Spanish Capital, 
followed by many expressions of friendship and popu- 
larity; and after a stay of two months in France and 
Switzerland returned home. 



CHAPTER XIX 

LAST DAYS AND END 

During this sojourn in Europe, Curry's health 
grew more impaired; and the attacks of his malady 
at times caused him much suffering. There seemed 
to be little, if any, improvement after his return 
home, in spite of the skilled treatment he had re- 
ceived, both in Europe and America, at the hands 
of eminent specialists. A man with less energy of 
will, or with a feebler aspiration for continued use- 
fulness, might have been contented to relax his work 
under the burdens of pain and increasing age, and to 
await in quietude the inevitable end. But with 
unabated purpose he continued to keep his place in 
the front rank of those who sought to elevate and 
dignify the nation in which he had shown himself a 
leader. The educator once more took up his allotted 
task with an unfaltering spirit, and with an ever 
unsparing effort, that was accompanied and light- 
ened by frequent expressions of appreciation which 
came to him from those who knew and recognized 
his distinguished service. 

Before his departure for Madrid in April, he had 
participated in epoch making plans for the cause of 
education in the South and the nation; and these 
plans are indicated in an entry of his journal on 
February 27, 1902:— 

Left for New York. Guest of W. H. Baldwin, Jr. We 
went to Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Jr. 's, to dinner. 

372 



LAST DAYS AND END 373 

Present, Baldwin, Curry, Gates, Oilman, Ogden, Shaw, 
Page, Buttrick, and Edward M. Shepard as counsel. In 
the order named we signed our names to a paper defining 
the purpose of an Education Association, for which an 
incorporation was to be asked from Congress. An organi- 
zation was effected, and Mr. Rockefeller, for his father, 
agreed to place $1,000,000 in the hands of the Association, 
to be used at the rate of $100,000 a year for education in 
the South. 

Meeting harmonius, and every vote unanimous. We 
sat until after midnight. 

On April 2 the following note was made in the 
journal: — 

Left at 7:45 for New York. Trustees of Oeneral Edu- 
cation Board met at Mr. Jesup's at 4 p. m. 

Very interesting meeting. Mr. J. D. Rockefeller placed 
$1,000,000 at our disposal to be used in ten years accord- 
ing to a ''policy" we had adopted. Some appropriations 
were made; others offered on conditions. 

Thus simply does Curry record the beginnings of 
the General Education Board, now everywhere known 
as perhaps the most powerful educational foundation 
in the world. Since that day fifty-one million dollars 
have been given to this Board by Mr. John D. Rocke- 
feller, with a wisdom and sagacity seldom equalled 
by the great givers of our times. The income 
from this huge foundation has enabled the Board 
to enlarge its field of operation, until now it embraces 
the continent. It has chosen for its special province 
the work of strengthening higher education in the 
Republic ; throughout the South, in addition, it seeks 
to promote public high schools through the State 
universities and the State departments of education, 
and to subserve elementary education by the im- 



374 J. L. M. CUERY, A BIOGRAPHY 

provement of agricultural conditions and increasing 
the efficiency of rural life. 

The fundamental idea of the Board is the stimu- 
lation to self-help of States, cities, and communities; 
and in pursuance of this idea it has directly and in- 
directly, under the thoughtful guidance of Frederick 
T. Gates and Wallace Buttrick, increased the per- 
manent endowment of American colleges over twenty 
millions of dollars in the past five years; and its 
service to American education has just begun. In 
the language of Dr. C. A. Smith. 

^' The idea which moves this Board is not that of creating 
anything new, but of contributing to the efficiency of 
what already exists. Its desire is not to bolster up the 
weak, but to make the strong still stronger; not to choke 
off individual initiative, but to spur it on; not to make 
new institutions, but to encourage and assist those which 
have shown themselves useful to the people." 

It was a great gratification to Curry, with the shad- 
ows of death falling across his path, to see the work of 
his life thus about to be carried forward by great agen- 
cies unimagined, when he emerged from the darkness 
and gloom of the lower South, smitten by the mad- 
ness of reconstruction, to undertake his educational 
ministry. In 1905, upon a foundation of $100,000, 
given by Mr. Rockefeller and in accordance with an 
expressed wish of his, the Curry Memorial School of 
Education was estabhshed at the University of Vir- 
ginia, and recently the General Education Board, in 
honor of one of its greatest pioneer members, has 
added $50,000 to the endowment of the School. 

In July, 1902, shortly before Curry's return from 
abroad, a meeting of the Southern Education Board 



LAST DAYS AND END 375 

and of the General Education Board was held in 
New York City, at which was indicated a general 
movement in the direction of harmonizing the differ- 
ent large educational funds then in existence, without 
imposing intentional restrictions upon their inde- 
pendent use and efficiency. 

The following items from the journal are intro- 
ductory of what was done in this direction at a later 
period : — 

September 29. — Arrived in New York at 1:30 p. m. 
Manly met us at station, but left at once for boat and 
Atlanta. 

Gov. Porter travelled with us from Asheville to New 
York. 

Mr. Simpkins made us a visit. 

Dr. Fraser, at my request, travelled from Washington 
to Baltimore, as I wished a conference with him on educa- 
tion in Virginia. 

September 30. — Dr. Wallace Buttrick, Mrs. Morehead, 
Mr. Simpkins and Dr. Booker T. Washington came to see 
us. 

My health improves. 

Dr. Buttrick showed me a highly complimentary letter 
from Mr. John D. Rockefeller, who stands behind our 
General Education Board, expressing surprise and grati- 
fication at the success and hopefulness of the work. . . . 

Wednesday, October 1. — Busy day from 9 to 5. Pea- 
body Board met at noon. Important conferences preced- 
ing. Re-elected General Agent, nem. con. A Secretary, 
salary of $2,000, authorized on motion, with commenda- 
tory remarks, of J. P. Morgan. 

On my recommendation, two committees were ap- 
pointed; one, on needs of Normal College; the other, on 
co-operation with ''General Education Board.'* 

I did not attend the usual banquet. . . . 



376 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

Thursday, October 2. — Meeting, in my room, of Com- 
mittee on College; Oilman, Hoar, Porter, Hoke Smith. 
Gov. Porter, in saying goodbye tearfully, said his injunc- 
tion was to take good care of myself for next five weeks. 
The College never so much needed me. Its success de- 
pended on it; and his work would be a failure without me. 

Left at 4 p. M. 

Curry's high estimate of Governor Porter, and of 
his relation to the Peabody Normal College and the 
cause of education, is worthy of being recorded 
here : — 

Governor Porter, who gave wise counsel and intelligent 
and influential support to Dr. Sears in his incipient propo- 
sition to ally the Peabody Board with the State in the es- 
tablishment of the College, should be memorialized by 
monument and the gratitude of teachers as the man who 
rendered most efficient and invaluable aid. 

Following the entry of October 2 in the journal 
is this brief and significant one: — 

October 3. — Asheville in afternoon. 
Relapse, and very sick. 

This attack seems to have been ominous; and was 
indicative of his now rapidly waning vitality. He 
made no record in his journal, as he usually did, of 
this meeting of the Peabody Board; but contented 
himself with preserving in his scrap-book a news- 
paper clipping, which gave an account of it. 

The Trustees of the Peabody Fund met yesterday in the 
Fifth Avenue Hotel at noon, and elected officers for the 
ensuing year, and received the reports of Dr. J. L. M. 
Curry, General Agent, and of J. Pierpont Morgan, Treas- 
urer. Bishop WiUiam Croswell Doane of Albany was 
elected a member of the Board to succeed the late Bishop 
Whipple of Minnesota, and Morris K. Jesup to succeed 



LAST DAYS AND END 377 

the late ex-Senator William M. Evarts. It was voted that 
ut the call of the Chairman, Chief Justice Fuller, and the 
executive committees, a special meeting might be held in 
Washington in January to consider taking steps to bring 
the work of the Peabody Fund, the Slater Fund and the 
General Education Fund into greater harmony. No merg- 
ing of management is contemplated, but it is desired to 
avoid duplication of work. Acting upon a motion made 
by Senator Hoar last year, an advisory board was elected 
for the Peaboby Normal College at Nashville. W. A. 
Berry, W. H. McAllister, John M. Gannt and Willis Bon- 
ner, all of Tennessee, were elected. Dr. Curry in his re- 
port reviewed the work of the last twenty years of the 
Fund. It was voted that he be empowered to choose an 
assistant. The income of the Fund, amounting to $80,000, 
was distributed among the scholarships and institutes in 
various States on last year's basis. Governor James D. 
Porter, the President of the Normal College; Dr. Curry, 
the General Agent; Dr. S. A. Green, the Secretary; and 
J. P. Morgan, the Treasurer, together with the standing 
committees, were re-elected. Those present were Samuel 
A. Green, J. L. M. Curry, James D. Porter, J. Pierpont 
Morgan, Chief Justice Fuller, Henderson M. Somerville, 
Daniel C. Gilman, George Peabody Wetmore, George F. 
Boar, and Hoke Smith. There was a dinner in the evening 
for the members and their guests. 

By November, Curry's general health appears to 
have improved; and early in December he visited 
Nashville, and with Dean Russell, of the New York 
Teachers College, addressed the Peabody Normal 
College, leaving that afternoon for Asheville. 

The Nashville American of December 6th gave 
the following account of this visit: — 

No event has recently occurred in connection with the 
Peabody College which has been of more interest to the 



378 J. L. M. CUERY, A BIOGRAPHY 

College, its faculty, and the student body, than the recent 
visit of Dr. J. L. M. Curry, General Agent of the Peabody 
Board; Dr. James E. Russell, Dean of the Teachers' Col- 
lege of New York, and Dr. Wallace Buttrick, Secretary 
of the General Education Board of New York. At a 
meeting of the faculty of the Peabody College, held 
Thursday, the following resolutions were unanimously 
adopted: 

*'Be it resolved, that the faculty of the Peabody College 
for Teachers express its special thankfulness for the recent 
visit of Dr. J. L. M. Curry, and that we assure him of a 
gratitude we cannot put in words for the interest and help 
he has given this institution. Our sympathy goes out to 
him in this time of suffering, along with a pleading to the 
Father that he may be restored to his wonted vigor. His 
service to his generation has been mighty; may he be 
spared to crown a life, already rich toward God, with even 
greater achievements for the people he has loved with all 
his soul. His coming to us is the coming of a father; his 
welcome will ever be the welcome of a father. 

"Be it resolved, that the faculty of the Peabody College 
for Teachers thank Dr. James E. Russell and Dr. Wallace 
Buttrick for their recent visit, and assure them of the ser- 
vice this visit yielded to the students, to the faculty, and 
to the institution as a whole. We extend to them our 
wishes for the prosperity of the great enterprise they are 
directing, with the hope that their duties will permit them 
to come to us frequently. For them our College household 
cherishes a warm welcome." 

The kindly and gentle spirit of these resolves sug- 
gest the intimation that their adopters perceived 
the waves of life to be ebbing with the man, 
whose career had so closely touched that of the in- 
stitution they represented. The resolutions are 
words of farewell. 



LAST DAYS AND END 379 

Following the Peabody Board's meeting in Octo- 
ber, and the visit to Nashville early in December, 
the brief entries in the journal, with the more 
frequent blanks and hiatuses, tell a pathetic story 
of protracted relapses, of severe surgical operations 
and of great sufferings. But the invincible courage 
remained still victorious, and the fading eyes con- 
tinued to look forward with unabated hope. A 
sense of this stalwart and unyielding spirit is inevi- 
tably kindled by the perusal of the pages of the 
diary of 1902, with their brief jottings of a series 
of business appointments, running into the New 
Year. 

In the meantime, letters of sympathy and en- 
couragement and admiration were coming to him 
from many of the most distinguished of his friends 
and contemporaries, at home and abroad, not only 
in the educational world, but also in the world of 
politics and letters. Of themselves, they mark the 
conspicuous and approved position that Curry had 
achieved; and if space permitted their publication 
here, they v/ould serve to adorn the pages which 
seek to chronicle his career. 

One writes, ^^ It is a matter of much rejoicing to us 
to see the fruition of the earnest seed-sowing that 
you have done these many years in the South;" 
another, '^I hope that no temporary discouragement 
as to the condition of your health will induce you 
to think of leaving the great work of managing the 
Peabody and Slater funds, which have been for so 
many years the great sheet anchor of education in 
the South;'' another, ''It is the pride and solace of 
those who cherish your name and fame that they 
will be associated with great movements for the 



380 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

blessing of so many;" and so the record might be 
almost indefinitely multiplied. 

After a critical illness of two weeks, the end came 
at 11:20 o'clock, Thursday night, February 12, 1903, 
at the house of his brother-in-law. Colonel John A. 
Connally, near Asheville, North Carolina. Mrs. 
Curry, whose ill health had shortly before taken her 
to Philadelphia for medical treatment, returned to 
Asheville when her husband grew worse; and she 
was by his bedside when he died. 

His wish that his mortal body might repose at 
Richmond, and be borne to its last resting-place 
from the halls of Richmond College, was faithfully 
regarded; and there gathered many of the fore- 
most men of the nation to bear testimony to his 
worth. 

''On the heights of Hollywood, overlooking the running 
river, his grave was made," writes a sympathetic friend. 
" Not far away is the grave of Dr. Jeter, for many years his 
friend and contemporary. Hard by is the grave of H. H. 
Harris, whom he loved with surpassing tenderness. In the 
same neighborhood sleeps the dust of William D. Thomas, 
his brother-in-law. These, with scores of their friends and 
brethren in Christ, await His coming." 

The names in this paragraph are of those who 
were very near to him in affection and in the creed 
that he professed. Others yet, whose names and 
fames are linked with the larger country, sleep about 
him in the Valhalla of the South. 

The shock and strain of the great separation 
brought his devoted wife to his side within three short 
months, dm-ing which her thoughts had dwelt con- 
stantly upon the perpetuation of his work and his 



LAST DAYS AND END 381 

fame. Upon the memorial stone marking their com- 
mon resting place is graven this triumphant promise :— 

They that wonder shall 
Reign, and they that 
Reign shall rest. 



CHAPTER XX 



FRIENDS AND ASSOCIATES 



Curry's life, passing the period named by the 
Psalmist, covered a time of amazing development, 
during which his own country advanced to the front 
rank among nations and the world about him was 
made over, before his eyes, in political machinery, 
economic method, scientific power and social purpose. 
Born in the administration of John Quincy Adams, 
and while Thomas Jefferson still lived and was 
launching the last darling project of his heart — the 
University of Virginia — he held his latest commission 
in the public service from Theodore Roosevelt. His 
career was contemporaneous with those of many of 
the most distinguished men and women in the his- 
tory of his country; and his associations with a large 
number of these men and women were more than 
casual. His visits abroad, and his services as a diplo- 
mat, afforded him the opportunity of knowing many 
of the first personages of his generation in the 
political, literary and social life of the old world; 
and his journals abound with references to these 
friends and acquaintances. 

Frequent mention has been made in the preceding 
pages of his admiration for Calhoun. No man exer- 
cised a more potent influence upon his younger life, 
in directing his adoption of the political theories and 
principles of the Federal Government, than did the 

382 



FEIENDS AND ASSOCTTATES 383 

great South Carolinian; and no man ever, through- 
out his career, more nearly measured up to his con- 
ception of the ideal statesman. Curry's meeting 
with Calhoun, — the one entering, the other nearing 
the close of his public career, — on the occasion of 
the former's return home from Harvard in 1845, 
has already been detailed in a former chapter. 
Throughout his political experiences in Alabama, 
and during his service in Congress, the younger man 
remained an avowed follower of the elder; and into 
his later years of a broader and more chastened ex- 
perience, he kept the master's faith, and ranked 
Calhoun with the most intellectual of the world's 
political philosophers. 

Frequent reminiscences of the War between the 
States, and of the Southern leaders, have appeared 
in earlier pages of this book. The following extracts 
contain allusions to four of the most unique figures 
in the armies of the South, — General Cockrell, less 
well-known than the other three; General Pat 
Cleburne, whose fame the poet, Ticknor, has bla- 
zoned in one of the most stirring of Southern war 
lyrics; General Leonidas Polk, who fashioned his 
bishop's crozier into a sword-blade in defense of his 
country; and the partisan leader, Colonel John S. 
Mosby, whose ^^Confederacy" was, for a long period 
of the war, maintained in the enemy's country with 
an unsurpassed and famous gallantry. 

"Near New Hope," writes Curry, ''occurred one of the 
most brilliant sorties of the campaign. Some of the Union 
forces made a desperate and bold effort to break through 
our right. They were met by as gallant a defence as sol- 
diers ever made. The Confederates under Cleburne, 
Cockrell and others, displayed heroic courage; and when 



384 J. L. M. CUREY, A BIOGRAPHY 

the attacking party withdrew, the ground was so covered 
with dead and disabled that one could have traversed it 
by walking on bodies. I never saw on battle field such 
havoc and destruction of human life. Cockrell, now Sena- 
tor from Missouri, brave as Julius Caesar, tender-hearted 
as a woman, never appears to greater advantage than 
when, in the midst of peril, he leads those who worship him 
to combat and victory. Cleburne, of Irish parentage, was 
a born captain, and like Jackson and Forrest and Semmes 
and Gordon, was conspicuous for generalship which seems 
to have come from instinct, or to have been heaven-en- 
dowed. In my old Congressional district, a county, cut off 
from Randolph and Calhoun, through which the Southern 
Railway passes, keeps alive the name and fame of Cle- 
burne." 

^'In March (1864) I went to Demopolis, at the request 
of Gen. Leonidas Polk, a bishop of the Episcopal Church, 
who had resigned his clerical position in order to serve the 
Confederacy in the field. A grand review of 20,000 troops 
took place, and I had the honor of addressing acres of sol- 
diers. . . . 

"It was near Marietta that our army was thrown into 
deep grief by the untimely death of Gen. Polk, who expos- 
ing himself too long while making an observation, was 
struck by a shell and killed suddenly. His piety, devotion 
to his church, fervent patriotism and soldierly qualities 
endeared him to army and people, and gave our cause the 
prestige of his striking personality." 

" December 4, 1866. — Left Washington City in company 
with Dr. Plummer. Met Col. Mosby, the famous partisan 
leader, on the cars. Pointed out many places of historic 
interest. A modest, unassuming, intelligent gentleman." 

Among Curry's papers is the following about 
' ' Stonewall ' ' Jackson : — 

Gen. T. J. Jackson is more universally loved in the Con- 
federacy than any other officer except Lee. His marvel- 



FEIENDS AND ASSOCIATES 385 

lous achievements were the result of extraordinary mili- 
tary genius. Col. Henderson, in his "Life of Jackson/* 
the best book written on the War, writing not as a partisan 
but as an unprejudiced military critic, — a Jomini or Na- 
pier, — ascribes to him the highest qualities as a captain. 
For years prior to the War he had been a professor in the 
Virginia Military Institute; but he had little aptness to 
teach; and his piety and courage did not shield him from 
adverse criticism as a teacher. On 20 May, 1875, I made 
a call on Gov. Kemper; and in the course of the evening he 
said that in 1857, when a member of the Board of Visitors 
of the Virginia Military Institute, one of the professors 
appeared before that body with two hundred cadets, and 
in a formal manner demanded the removal of Col. Jackson 
from his professorship for ''intellectual incompetency." 
The demand was fortunately not acceded to, and the pro- 
fessor continued in the discharge of his collegiate duties 
until the war occurred, when he promptly offered his ser- 
vices as a soldier. 

Mention has heretofore been made of Horace 
Greeley's complimentary allusion in The Tribune to 
Curry's first speech in Congress. Under date of 
Sunday, August 6, 1871, occurs the following note 
in the diary: — 

Preached at 11:30 A. m. at Madison Avenue Baptist 
Church (New York). Administered the Lord's Supper in 
morning. Horace Greeley was present in the morning, 
and soundly slept. 

Curry's acquaintances among famous Englishmen 
were numerous. His meetings with Matthew Arnold, 
Joseph Chamberlain, Goldwin Smith, and others 
have been already mentioned. In a newspaper clip- 
ping preserved by him, and contributed by him to 
the Religious Herald^ he writes of Arnold: — 

Matthew Arnold was also once in Richmond for a few 



386 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

days. As he brought a letter of introduction to me from 
the Hon. Robert C. Winthrop, it was my privilege to show 
him some attention and enjoy his companionship. In a 
carriage we visited objects of historic, civil and social in- 
terest, and talked over many subjects, for he was inquisi- 
tive rather than communicative. As he had been school 
inspector in England, and was the son of a great school- 
master, our schools much interested him. He did not im- 
press me as a sound observer, for he generalized hastily as 
to people and institutions from narrow data. Archbishop 
Tait, of Canterbury, whose Hfe is interesting and instruc- 
tive, said: "I despair of knowing anything for certain of 
the real life of any people without living long amongst 
them." How much we have suffered at the South from 
the hasty conclusions of Pullman-car observers! Mr. 
Arnold lectured at night in Mozart Hall. He read closely, 
and excited some adverse comments, for many of us had 
read the lecture, which had previously appeared in an Eng- 
hsh magazine, and in ''Littell." The offence to our pro- 
vincialism was somewhat softened when we learned that a 
few nights before a Boston audience had been served with 
the same "cold soup." 

Other desultory notes of his chance associations 
with, or reminiscences of Dean Stanley, Beresford 
Hope, Charles Stewart Parnell, Bright, Gladstone, 
Mr. Bryce, and Spurgeon, are found in his journals 
and note books. 

In 1875 I heard Dean Stanley, in Westminster, preach 
a funeral discourse on Bishop Thirl wall, and witnessed the 
burial. 

On 5 October, 1875, I dined at Col. Archer Anderson's 
with the Dean. Low in stature, wore knee-pants, low- 
quartered shoes with silver buckles, "shad-bellied" coat; 
had the usual English mutton-chop whiskers; had on the 
medal of the Deanery of Westminster, a circular gold 



FRIENDS AND ASSOCIATES 387 

piece, with three crowns, shamrock and thistle. — Quiet, 
unostentatious, pleasant; did not smoke. Pleased with 
references to his books, and by allusions to him in "Tom 
Brown at Rugby." — Said Dr. Arnold ruled more by ''awe" 
than by law. In after life, became rather intimate; but 
could never quite overcome his fear. Rather shocked once, 
when Bunsen, in earnest conversation, slapped Arnold on 
the knees. Contrasted Grant and Dom Pedro of Brazil, 
rather unfavorably as to Grant, showing he did not know 
the great general. He called Bishop Ellicott ''Charles," 
and Trevelyan "George;" said Macaulay attended wor- 
ship, and was an ordinarily "rehgious" man. 

The Dean had an unusually large acquaintance and 
friendship outside of the clergy, and was especially a fa- 
vorite with Americans. In his ecclesiastical opinions, he 
was rather a combination of Broad Church and Liberal, 
and hence drew upon himself the "reptilian criticism" of 
some Ritualistic newspapers. His "Christian Institu- 
tions" frankly conceded that primitive baptism was by 
immersion; and when the statue of John Bunyan, the 
"immortal Baptist tinker," and author of "Pilgrim's 
Progress" was unveiled, by a natural fitness of things he 
made a delightful address. A churchly paper, in comment- 
ing on the event, with vitriolic malice said that when the 
statue of the Devil was finished, the fittest person to un- 
veil it would be the Dean of Westminster. 

His handwriting was undecipherable; and answers to 
invitations to dinner were sometimes returned, that the 
hostess might ascertain whether there was an acceptance 
or declination. 

In April, 1876, returning home after nearly a year's 
absence in Europe, Asia and Africa, I tarried for a season 
in London, and in the Lake District in England. Having 
a letter of introduction from the Governor of Virginia, 
which had been previously presented, I accepted an invi- 
tation to breakfast from Beresford Hope, then representing 
Cambridge University in the British Parliament. At the 



388 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

table were Lady Hope, somewhat of an invalid, and who, 
as the sister of Lord Salisbury, had a title in which her hus- 
band did not share ; several daughters, one of whom was to 
be married the following week; and a son, a student at 
Cambridge, who was in a state of great excitement because 
of a boat-race to occur that day on the Thames between 
the crews of Oxford and Cambridge. 

Mr. Hope, a stout, near-sighted, old English gentleman, 
received me courteously and cordially. The breakfast was 
such as is usual in English families. What was singular, 
no servant appeared at the table, although several liveried 
men were quite obsequious in opening doors, taking hats, 
wrappings, etc. Host and daughters served the coffee, but 
the substantial food was on a side-table, and each person 
was expected to get whatever was needed or desired. 

Through Mr. Hope's kindness, I secured a seat in the 
House of Commons, where for several hours I witnessed 
the proceedings and heard the debates. . . . Mr. 
Hope was a pohtician, having entered Parhament in 1841, 
and an author, having written a number of pamphlets and 
books. Possessing great wealth, he published the well- 
known Saturday Review, a periodical of much smartness, 
which gave a substantial aid to young and needy writers, 
some of whom became distinguished. Among these were 
Salisbury; Sir William Vernon Harcourt, the great 
Liberal leader; Morley, the chosen biographer of Glad- 
stone; and Stephen, a well-known English judge and 
writer of law-books. 

Among Mr. Hope's contributions to literature were 
pamphlets and books on the American War. He was an 
ardent friend of the South in that struggle, and was 
chiefly instrumental in having erected the bronze statue of 
Stonewall Jackson, which is in the Capitol Square of Rich- 
mond. 

The following entry in the journal was made at 
Richmond, under date of February 6, 1880: — 



FRIENDS AND ASSOCIATES 389 

Went to Mozart Hall and heard Hon. Charles Parnell, 
M. P., and Mr. Dillon, two Irish agitators, discuss the 
famine in Ireland, and as the cause thereof, the land- 
tenure. Facts interesting, badly presented. 

Of an evening spent with John Bright, he records 
this impression: — 

In the House of Commons I once heard a short speech 
from John Bright, the Quaker Commoner. He had a clear, 
musical voice, commanded most respectful attention, and 
his manner of speech was earnest and forcible, and wholly- 
free from that halting, stammering utterance, which so 
many English speakers and talkers affect. In 1886 during 
the Queen's Jubliee, I was in England, and was invited to 
dinner by our Minister, the Hon. E. J. Phelps. About 
twenty persons were present, some of great distinction, 
whose names and faces I should have been glad to know; 
but because of the stupid prevalent custom of non-intro- 
duction, I was presented to only one guest, and he was Mr. 
Bright, who sat between Murat Halstead and myself. He 
was very reticent; seemed absent-minded or absorbed in 
his own thoughts, and inclined me to suspect that his de- 
fection from Mr. Gladstone and alliance with the Conser- 
vatives on the Home Rule question was due, as the Lib- 
erals charged, to a loss of that vivacious, springy intellect 
which had previously made him such a strong debater. 
During the evening, inquiring whether I was an American, 
he said: "Your country is a very remarkable one;" and 
added the inquiry, ''To what do you attribute its great- 
ness?" My reply was: "That is a very difficult question. 
To answer it properly would require a volume ; but I would 
mention a few causes which he on the surface." I sug- 
gested, absence of neighbors; immense areas of fertile land; 
energy of free institutions; freedom of trade among the 
States; Home Rule, or local self-government; and absolute 
religious liberty. When Home Rule was instanced, he 
shrugged his shoulders; but evinced pleasure when I speci- 



390 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

fied the inter-State free-trade, and soul liberty. On the 
last he made an emphatic comment of approval, and gave 
us credit for our superiority, in that respect, over all other 
nations. 

It has been noted on an earlier page, that in 1890, 
Curry had met in Richmond, the distinguished 
English statesman and author, whose great work, 
^^The American Commonwealth,^' is a classic exhi- 
bition of knowledge of a foreign country's institu- 
tions, achieved by an alien. Late in life, Curry 
wrote of Mr. Bryce as follows: — 

''Apropos of the veto-power, I once related to Mr. 
Bryce the conversation" (heretofore detailed) "with Mr. 
Chamberlain; and he inquired whether such an arbitrary, 
one-man power did not, because of its inconsistency with 
our form of government, make the Executive who used it 
unpopular. On the contrary, I told him, it had had no 
such effect. Generally, except in Mr. Cleveland's vetoes 
of Pension Bills, the Congress and the people approved. 
To an inquiry as to the principal arguments in favor of the 
retention of such a power, I referred to the effort made by 
Mr. Clay and the Whig party in 1842 to modify or restrain 
the exercise, and its decisive defeat, brought about largely 
by Mr. Calhoun's unanswerable argument. 'Did you 
ever read that speech? ' I asked. He had never heard of 
it. I begged him to read it, saying that when he finished, 
he would write after it, Q. E. D." 

"In a delightful interview with Mr. Gladstone in Lon- 
don, in 1887, in company with Dr. Aubery, the author of 
the excellent 'History of the English People,' I ventured to 
suggest a visit to America, the enthusiastic welcome he 
would receive, and the general gratification of his 'Kin 
Beyond the Sea,' had given our people. He replied that 
he was too old and too busy to cross the ocean; but he 
had a young friend, Mr. Bryce, who had three times 



FRIENDS AND ASSOCIATES 391 

crossed the ocean for the study of the people and the in- 
stitutions of our great country, and his book would be 
worthy of the subject. 'The American Commonwealth' 
has more than fulfilled that prediction; and, because later 
and written by an Englishman, is superior to De Tocque- 
ville." 

One wishes for a more vivid picture of Gladstone 
from Curry, his presence, manner, speech. He 
greatly admired the great Englishman and wrote a 
sketch of him, but the critical impulse was not 
strong in Curry. His forte was not analysis and 
delineation and subtle portrayal, but exhortation 
and persuasion. 

It has been stated in a former chapter that, in the 
July of 1867, Curry, then on his first European tour, 
heard Spurgeon preach in London; and that in the 
following October he heard him again and made his 
acquaintance. Of the first occasion when he listened 
to him, he made a note ten days later. 

At 6 p. M., — night, as it is called, although the sun 
was two hours high, I went to the tabernacle to hear Spur- 
geon. In the morning I had been informed that he was 
''out of town." In the evening I determined to ascertain 
for myself, and was unfortunately too late for the intro- 
ductory services. Just as I entered the spacious taber- 
nacle, — a large room with three circular galleries, which 
were densely packed, every available foot being occupied 
by sitter or stander, — I heard a clear, distinct voice read- 
ing a hymn. . . . The whole congregation, at least 
five thousand, joined in singing, using the familiar tune of 
"Ortonville." Then came a fervent prayer. Afterwards 
followed the sermon, about thirty-five minutes in length. 
There is no pulpit in the building. The preacher stood in 
the first gallery; and, after reading his text, leaned against 
the railing. His text was Luke VII, 41, 42. Without pre- 



392 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

liminary remark, except a brief ejaculatory prayer for the 
Spirit's help, he stated the division. . . . There was 
nothing very striking or original in the discourse; and yet 
he commanded the undivided attention of the whole mul- 
titude. If the sermon I heard be a fair specimen of thought 
and delivery (and I think it was not), I have heard fifty 
preachers in the United States, who, as mere pulpit ora- 
tors, are superior to him. Dr. Fuller is unapproachably 
ahead of him. Was I, then, disappointed? And in what 
consists his power? 

So many accounts had been received from those who 
had heard him, that I was not much disappointed. The 
secret of his power is not a unit. It is manifold. He has a 
voice, wonderful not so much for its strength as for its 
clearness and distinctness. Directly opposite to him, and 
in a remote part of the building, I caught every syllable. 
His utterance is neither slow nor rapid. A reporter, I 
should judge, could easily take down his words. He is a 
man of earnestness, enthusiasm, prayer, faith. His preach- 
ing is practical, pointed, personal and scriptural. He loves 
Jesus. He talks about Jesus. He knows no other name as 
the foundation of a sinner's hope, than Jesus. . . . 
With a vein of humor in his composition, he often excites a 
smile; — never boisterous or irreverent laughter. The phil- 
osophy of his success is, an earnest and believing proc- 
lamation of the good news of salvation through Jesus 
Christ. 

In the following October, after hearing Spurgeon 
again, and making his acquaintance, Curry wrote in 
a letter to the Religious Herald, under the caption of 
^'A Sunday in London/' a further account of the 
English preacher. 

. . . The house was crowded. . . . Spurgeon 
preached. It was his first sermon for four weeks, as he had 
been sick. I never saw a more attentive congregation. I 



FEIENDS AND ASSOCIATES 393 

have seen people more wrought upon by human speech, 
but every eye was fixed and every mind comprehended. 
The sermon was a direct, earnest, practical enforcement of 
Scriptural truth. 

Spurgeon is now a recognized fact — an acknowledged 
influence — a felt power. He has been sneered at, written 
at, ridiculed, misrepresented, slandered; but still there is 
no wane in his popularity or success, nor any change of 
tactics, nor any cessation of aggressive effort. . . . 
Strictly and rhetorically speaking, Spurgeon is not an 
orator. A score of men could be mentioned who are his 
superiors as a mere speaker. His strength is not in his 
oratorical abilities. Of course he is not deficient in these 
respects. His person is not commanding. His voice is not 
particularly melHfluous. His gesticulation is ordinary, 
and he is not, in my judgment, pre-eminent for logic or 
eloquence. How then has Charles Haddon Spurgeon, at 
the age of 33, become in the estimation of so many, the 
prince of living preachers? 

His voice is clear and his articulation almost perfect. 
His language is strong, vigorous Saxon; his style easy and 
flowing, and at the same time terse and condensed. His 
method is natural, perspicuous, orderly; and the most un- 
cultivated can remember his divisions. He has a marvel- 
lous fecundity and appositeness of illustration, and his 
figures and images, like the caryatides in architecture, give 
both strength and ornament to his discourse. . . . He 
has entire command of his resources, his voice and emo- 
tions; and his speaking never descends to mere declama- 
tion. But his power lies back of all these auxiliaries. He 
is a man of earnestness, sincerity, piety, prayer, faith, and 
full of the Holy Spirit. He is a consecrated man. His 
heart is in the ministry. His soul is afire with the love of 
God, and zeal for perishing sinners. He preaches, more 
than any one I ever heard, right at each individual hearer, 
and he preaches Jesus Christ and Him alone as the Saviour 
of sinners. 



394 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

In April of 1876 he wrote in his journal about 
Spurgeon : — 

I now purpose an account of a Sunday in London, with 
some thoughts suggested by the worship and the preach- 
ers. 

Of course, Spurgeon was my first choice. I have an in- 
variable rule to hear J. A. B. (John A. Broadus) once on a 
Sabbath if I am where he preaches; and a similar rule 
might be adopted, with like results, if one is where 
Spurgeon preaches. 

Curry's reminiscences of the great English religious 
exhorter may be concluded with an extract from one 
of his contributions in March, 1892, to the Religious 
Herald: — 

The numerous announcements of publications relating 
to Spurgeon and his extraordinary career, and the eager 
haste with which compilers and publishers are seeking to 
get before the public, are the proof of the anxiety with 
which everything authentic pertaining to the great 
preacher is read. Some one, in giving an account of a mem- 
orial meeting, ascribed to me an intimacy with him, which 
I had not the honor to possess. It was my privilege to 
hear him preach a number of times from 1867 onwards; to 
get an occasional letter from him; and to enjoy a brief com- 
panionship at his home and under his roof. It so happens 
that a letter, written to one of my children in 1875, lies 
before me, and in it an account is given of a Sunday in 
London, when I heard Liddon, Parker and Spurgeon. 

This paragraph is followed by an account, sub- 
stantially similar to that given above, of his estimate 
of Spurgeon's methods and abilities; and of a visit 
to the preacher's home. It is clear that the great 



FRIENDS AND ASSOCIATES 395 

preacher interested him and stirred his critical 
faculties more than the statesmen and lawgivers. 

Turning now to others with whom Curry was more 
intimately acquainted, we find in his memorabilia, 
further reminiscences than those already given, of 
Joseph LeConte, Benjamin Hill, Linton and Alex- 
ander H. Stephens, William L. Yancey, Sergeant S. 
Prentiss, Howell Cobb, Robert Toombs and Judah 
P. Benjamin. 

First, of LeConte, who in his ^^ Autobiography^' 
tells of the college career of himself and his brother, 
Lewis, but seems to make no mention by name of 
any other of his classmates or college mates: — 

As LeConte became the most distinguished of all my 
fellow collegians, as an author and a scientist, it may be of 
interest to state that he and his brother, natives of Liberty 
County (Georgia) which gave more students to the Col- 
lege than any other County except Clarke, were class- 
mates and room-mates. Both were noted for their un- 
blemished purity of morals, courtesy of demeanor, studi- 
ous habits and general popularity. Lewis had much na- 
tive talent in drawing and sculpture. ^^Joe," as he was 
called, played on the flute exquisitely; and while his class- 
standing was fair, he gave no special promise of the dis- 
tinction in science he subsequently attained, — no prophecy 
of the exalted place he won and merited in the scientific 
and literary world. These adjectives do not convey a 
proper idea of his many-sidedness; for geology, biology, 
optics, philosophy, theology and education enjoyed his 
attention. His orthodox views on Evolution and the 
Bible gave comfort to many pious people who feared that 
modern science was undermining their faith. He demon- 
strated the consistency of science and religion, and re- 
tained unwaveringly his connection with the Presbyterian 
Church and his profession of personal faith in Christ. 



396 J. L. M. CUEKY, A BIOGRAPHY 

Of Benjamin H. Hill, the great Georgian, Curry 
says : — 

Ben Hill was a fellow-student of the class of 1844, and 
he was brilliant and popular, and gave promise of that re- 
markable ability which made him a conspicuous debater 
in the council-halls of the country, and his early death an 
irreparable calamity to his beloved South. 

As has been heretofore recorded, he first met 
Alexander H. Stephens during his college days at 
Athens. 

'' It has been my good fortune,'' he wrote in an article in 
the Atlanta Constitution in 1899, ''to have seen and heard 
many distinguished Georgians, and with not a few I have 
enjoyed relations of intimacy or friendship. A long cata- 
logue comes to my memory, embracing Bartow, Law, 
Lawton, the Jacksons, the Crawfords, the Cobbs, Nesbit, 
Murray, Jenkins, the Stephenses, Dougherty, Hillyer, 
Well, Tucker, Pierce, Haygood, Iverson, the Colquitts, 
Hall, Hill, Barnett, Grady, Berrien, Johnson, Brown and 
others. . . . 

When a small boy in my native country of Lincoln, I 
was present at a session of the Superior Court over which 
William H. Crawford presided, and at which were present 
such attorneys as Joseph Henry Lumpkin, Francis Cone, 
Robert Toombs and Andrew J. Miller. ... At subse- 
quent courts Alexander H. Stephens attended. The phys- 
ical man was in marked contrast to the intellectual; for 
there was scarcely flesh enough on his bones to cover his 
brilliant genius. Tall, cadaverous, apparently bloodless, 
weighing about a hundred pounds, he was capable at the 
bar, on the stump, in legislative halls, of as much work as 
the most athletic and robust. In the years 1839-1843, I 
saw him several times in Athens. . . . Going one day 
into Linton's room in the "old college" building, I was in- 
troduced to "Brother Aleck," who was lying on the bed, 



FRIENDS AND ASSOCIATES 397 

and most unprepossessing, except as his eyes shone with 
unusual lustre. . . . From that day until his death, 
while he was in Federal and Confederate Congresses, Vice- 
president of the Confederacy and Governor of Georgia, I 
saw him often, and because of association and friendship 
with Linton, he treated me with much consideration and 
kindness. 

He was a ready and able debater, quick at repartee, 
careful in preparation of his speeches, clear and logical in 
the presentation of his arguments, and at times impas- 
sioned and eloquent. His articulation was distinct; and 
frequently his voice assumed an upward and downward 
intonation, a semi-musical swell and fall, acquired prob- 
ably from much speaking in the open air. In the House of 
Representatives at Washington, where few were listened 
to, he always commanded undivided attention; and once, 
during his speech on the admission of Oregon as a State 
into the Union, the applause, begun on the floor, was taken 
up by the galleries and continued, until it amounted to an 
ovation. 

. . . . The mind of Mr. Stephens was fruitful of 
suggestions; his opinions, matured by experience and pro- 
found study, were conservative; his heart was hopeful. 
. . . . Social in his nature, loving human companion- 
ship, fond of talking, he was a coveted guest at many 
homes. 

He adds of Stephens, in his journal: — 

On 20th April, 1874, Mr. Stephens was in Richmond, 
and was very feeble, — little more than a walking skeleton. 
His intellect was undimmed; his eye sparkled like a big 
diamond; and his conversation was interesting and instruc- 
tive. Once when I called, I found Governors Wise and 
Kemper with him; and he gave a graphic account of the 
visit of the Confederate Commissioners to Gen. Grant; of 
the General's honesty, patriotism and ability, he expressed 
himself in warm and eulogistic terms. , . > , , 



398 J. L. M. CUERY, A BIOGRAPHY 

S. S. Prentiss, William L. Yancey and Wendell 
Phillips profoundly captivated and impressed him. 
Of Prentiss he wrote in 1877: — 

Prior to the Whig nomination (in 1844), I heard S. S. 
Prentiss of Mississippi, one of the most eloquent men in 
America, make a speech to a packed audience in Faneuil 
Hall. It was one of the most thrilling specimens of plat- 
form oratory I ever listened to, and he carried his audience 
at pleasure. 

Writing in 1890, in the Religious Herald, some 
^'Reminiscences of the Early Days of the Anti- 
Slavery Movement," he says of Wendell Phillips, 
the great abolitionist agitator: — 

To have heard Phillips forty-five years ago was a par- 
tial education for a young student. He, S. S. Prentiss, and 
W. L. Yancey, were the great orators of this country. 

His admiration of the stirring eloquence and 
extraordinary oratorical gifts of Prentiss and of 
Yancey never waned; and in his latter years he 
confirmed his earlier judgment of them in this 
statement : — 

I have been very often asked who was the greatest orator 
I ever heard. . . . Speaking is so various, that it can 
not be classified. Some is compact, some diffusive; some 
sober, some humorous; some logical, some rhetorical; some 
argumentative, some didactic ; some dry, some very enter- 
taining. Oratory and eloquence are by no means identi- 
cal. My definition of oratory would be, ''Let us go and 
fight Philip." This requires a great occasion, a crisis, the 
suspension of human interests on a single hour, on an over- 
shadowing, imperative issue. Demosthenes, Mirabeau 
and Henry were orators. It has been my privilege to 
hear Canovas, Sagasta, Moret and Castelar in Spain; 
Gambetta in France; Balfour, Fawcett, DTsraeli, Bright 



FRIENDS AND ASSOCIATES 399 

and Gladstone in England; Choate, Webster, Phillips, 
Douglas, Benjamin, Bowden, Corwin, Seward, McDuffie 
and others in the United States, They differed widely. 
Each had his excellencies; but as orators taking captive 
unwilling audiences, holding in possession emotions, con- 
victions, will, person and property, — driving to conclu- 
sions which surrendered everything to the speaker, — those 
who in my judgment were the greatest were S. S. Prentiss 
and William L. Yancey, — one a native of Maine, the other 
of South Carolina. 

Curry never failed to express his admiration of 
Yancey; and he records his having, when an elector 
on the Buchanan ticket, dined with the great orator 
at the meeting of the electoral college at Mont- 
gomery. Another note of his about Yancey is that 
the latter said to him, by way of advice, when he 
was a law-student: ^^ Young man, if you wish to 
succeed at the bar, learn to think on your legs," — 
a more valuable, if more difficult lesson to learn than 
that of the famous orator and wit, Tom Corwin, of 
Ohio, who advised a young disciple of Blackstone, 
inquiring the road to success: ''Be solemn, young 
man! Be solemn as an ass!" 

Among the distinguished Georgians who were 
Curry's friends, he often spoke and wrote of Robert 
Toombs and Howell Cobb. Associating Toombs 
and Alexander H. Stephens, he said: — 

Perhaps no two pubhc men occupying distinguished 
positions in our country ever sustained a longer and closer 
intimacy than Stephens and Robert Toombs. Born in ad- 
joining counties, educated at the same college, practising 
law in the same courts, they were as Damon and Pythias. 
. . . . Physically they were antipodes; Stephens, 
delicate, with yellow complexion, frail body, his survival 



400 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

amid severe labors, physical weaknesses, a sword-thrust 
and the fall of a gate upon him, seemed a miracle; Toombs, 
robust, vigorous, boisterous, aggressive, a Boanerges, was 
the impersonation of health. 

I saw Toombs for the first time in attendance upon the 
Superior Court of Lincoln County. ... He was then 
about twenty-five years of age, and was a model of manly 
beauty. From that time until his death I saw him fre- 
quently, and never received anything at his hands except 
generous hospitality, marked courtesy and flattering re- 
gard. ... By a sort of logical and political fitness of 
things, he became the first Secretary of State of the Con- 
federacy. President Davis and he were not built on the 
same pattern, and friction was inevitable. Restive as a 
subordinate of the President, and impatient for service in 
another field, he entered the army, where for reasons not 
desirable to be stated, he did not add to his reputation nor 
achieve any military renown. With gifts rarely surpassed, he 
reached the art of seizing the genius and tendency of a criti- 
cal epoch. His ability was perhaps more destructive than 
constructive. During the French Revolution some men were 
called ''architects of ruin." I recall a dramatic incident in 
a secret session of the Provisional Congress, held in the Hall 
of the House of Deputies in the Capitol at Richmond, 
when the success of the Confederacy was under considera- 
tion, and foreign succor, financial schemes, and other ex- 
pedients were under discussion. After a warm debate, 
General Toombs took the floor, and in less than an hour 
delivered one of the most powerful speeches I ever listened 
to, on our available means of safety. Every deputy sat 
with concentrated and rapt attention, amazed at the ex- 
traordinary ability of the man, and surprised and delighted 
at the seemingly wise and adequate scheme which was pre- 
sented for our triumph. When he closed, there was si- 
lence, almost painful, for a considerable time in the body, 
when Mr. Robert H. Smith of Mobile arose and said: 
"Mr. President, if the gentleman from Georgia does not 



FRIENDS AND ASSOCIATES 401 

bring in bills to carry out what he has suggested, he is a 
worse traitor than Benedict Arnold." The idea of Mr. 
Smith was that no one comprehended the situation as did 
General Toombs, and on no other person did the obliga- 
tion rest as heavily for devising and framing the adequate 
legislation. 

In 1859-1860, while a representative in the United 
States Congress, Curry dined frequently at the home 
of General Cobb, in Washington, who was then 
Secretary of the Treasury, and whose wife, a Lamar, 
was a relative of Curry's. The latter knew Cobb 
at the University of Georgia, having first met him 
there when he came to deliver political speeches be- 
fore the local club. 

''Howell Cobb," he says, ''was a remarkable man, — not 
so scholarly as his younger brother, T. R. R., nor so studi- 
ous or diligent as Stephens or Toombs, but with quicker 
intellect and readier faculty of adaptation, because of re- 
sources on unexpected occasions, and of what some writers 
call the genius of common sense. Inclined to corpulency, 
good-humored, amiable, cordial in manner and disposition, 
with a genial nature giving sway over equals, practical 
rather than theoretical, he was a devoted husband, and 
affectionate father, a generous friend, and emphatically a 
people's man." 

Not the least^ in Curry's opinion, of this group of 
Southern statesmen, was Judah P. Benjamin. In 
a series of "Recollections of Great Southerners,'' 
published in the Atlanta Constitution a few years 
before his death, and from which the foregoing ex- 
tracts about Toombs and Howell Cobb are taken, 
Curry says of Benjamin: — 

His parents were English Jews, who on their way to 
America landed in one of the West Indies, where Judah 



402 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

was born. His early boyhood was spent in North Carolina; 
but removing to New Orleans he was called to the bar in 
1832, and won high respect as a lawyer and advocate. In 
1857 I made his acquaintance, when he was a Senator with 
Slidell, of Trent memory, as his colleague. He was a low, 
stout, genial, smiling man, of decided Jewish cast, with 
bright, black eyes, and all the grace and suavity of a pol- 
ished Frenchman, looking as if he never had a trouble. To 
me he was one of the most attractive and fascinating men I 
ever met in pubHc life. While Senator, he not infrequently 
appeared before the Supreme Court; and when he was to 
argue a case, there was as much anxiety to hear him as 
there is now to hear Joseph Choate or James C. Carter. 
In the Senate, where were such men as Douglas, Green, 
Sumner, Pugh, he had no superior as a debater. One of 
his best known speeches, which during its delivery filled 
the galleries, and nearly emptied the House of Represen- 
tatives, was in reply to Seward, and in vindication of Judge 
Taney and the Dred Scott decision. The exposure of the 
sophistry and misrepresentation of the New York Senator 
was something terrible; and yet after the numerous and 
cordial congratulations were over, the New Yorker, who 
had listened with stolid composure to the merciless casti- 
gation and exposure, approached Benjamin and shook 
hands with him. Years afterwards I asked Benjamin 
what Seward had the cheek to say, so calmly, after the 
argument; and was told that after some pleasant compli- 
ment about the ability of the speech, Seward took mild 
exception to some statement as to his position. Another 
great speech, a powerful defence of State-rights, heard 
with admiration by Sir G. C. Lewis of England, was made 
in the Senate on the 31st of December, 1860. Benjamin 
was collected and self-possessed in debate, had a voice as 
musical as the chimes of silver bells, a memory like Macau- 
lay's, used no notes, and while earnest in manner and de- 
livery, seemed as fresh at the close of a discourse as when 
he uttered the first sentence. His versatility and his 



FRIENDS AND ASSOCIATES 403 

capacity for work were immense, and he turned from one 
subject or duty to another with such facility and clev- 
erness that he seemed to have no special aptitudes or 
preferences. 

Benjamin's interesting career is known to the 
English-speaking world. A citizen, successively, of 
three governments, he was renowned under all. 
*'The little Jew has stated his opponent out of 
court," whispered one of the Justices of the Supreme 
Court to another, on the occasion of Benjamin's 
opening statement in his first case before that august 
tribunal; and if, as Curry says, ^^he seemed to have 
no special aptitude," it can hardly be doubted that 
one of the greatest, if not the greatest, of his intel- 
lectual gifts, — illustrated alike in his speeches and 
his writings, — was this unique power of exact and 
lucid statement. 

Among the noted or famous preachers of America, 
Curry himself a preacher and not the least known, 
had naturally a wide and intimate circle of friends. 
In addition to those already mentioned in these 
pages, it may not be invidious to name here Basil 
Manly, Philip Schaff, J. P. Boyce, J. B. Jeter, John 
A. Broadus, Moses D. Hoge, J. L. Burrows, W. S. 
Plumer and Richard Fuller. At the inauguration 
of Jefferson Davis, February 18, 1861, he was 
present, and heard Manly's prayer. His address 
before the World's Evangelical Alliance at New 
York, in 1873, was made at the request of Schaff, 
among others. Of Plumer and Jeter he has left 
the record of some pleasing reminiscences: — 

On 10 November, 1868, travelling on a train between 
Selma and Talladega, Dr. W. S. Plumer was my compan- 
ion. In course of conversation, he pronounced Andrew 



404 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

Fuller's ''Gospel its Own Witness" to be the best defence 
of Christianity in the English language. He further said 
that the celebrated astronomical argument of Dr. Chal- 
mers was more forcibly stated by Dr. Gill. 

In his *' Recollections of a Long Life," Dr. Jeter says the 
formation of an African church in Richmond, which he 
had in contemplation in 1842, did not receive the counte- 
nance of some Protestant pastors in the city. To a sug- 
gestion for a meeting of the clergy, to get their advice, Dr. 
Plumer, then pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, 
said: "Don't do it. The clergy may decide against your 
plan: but it is right; go forward in the work; and if you 
have trouble, I will stand by you." When an effort was 
being made to secure an indictment against those who had 
the meetings of the church in charge, the Doctor visited 
Dr. Jeter, and said: ''I wish you to understand that in any 
difficulties you may have concerning the African church I 
am to go halves with you." It should be remembered that 
this noble and courageous offer was made sixty years ago. 

Of Richard Fuller, he wrote in the Religious 
Herald: — 

Richard Fuller would have been called an ugly man. 
He was gigantic in stature, with shaggy hair, coarse fea- 
tures, but was imperial, imposing, graceful in movement, 
with varying moods, the irresistible rush of a tornado, the 
soft sighing of a gentle zephyr — once seen in his majestic 
power, never forgotten. He was a rare man, a combina- 
tion of contradictory qualities, and in pagan days would 
have been worshipped as a Hercules, or the god of elo- 
quence. Grace subdued him, mastered him, consecrated 
his powers, made him a little child, submissive, affection- 
ate, obedient at his Master's feet. Sometimes, when 
aroused and indignant, he thundered with the majesty and 
wrath of Zeus his anathemas against falsehood and hypoc- 
risy, against cowardice and crime; and at another time he 
had a child on his shoulders, romping through the house or 



FRIENDS AND ASSOCIATES 405 

in the yard with the frolicsomeness of a kitten. He had a 
keen sense of the ludicrous, was an inimitable raconteur, 
and often charmed or convulsed an audience or circle of 
friends by his flashes of wit, recital of amusing incidents, 
or ludicrous presentations of personal characteristics. 

Graduating from Harvard, he entered upon the prac- 
tice of the law in Beaufort, S. C, and sprang at once to the 
front, with most alluring prospects of wealth, position, and 
fame. Dr. Daniel Baker, a Presbyterian evangelist, held a 
series of meetings, and EUiott (afterwards Bishop in 
Georgia), Fuller and others were "converted." Fuller 
soon entered the ministry and began his illustrious career 
as, perhaps, the foremost man in the American pulpit, — cer- 
tainly ranking alongside of Beecher, Brooks and Broadus. 
He had two controversies, one with that learned prelate, 
Bishop England, on the tenets of the Roman Catholic 
Church, and the other with Dr. Wayland, of Brown Uni- 
versity, on African slavery as it existed in the Southern 
States. The latter discussion, marked by great ability on 
both sides, was characterized as well by the lowliest spirit, 
and not a word was written by either which was in the 
slightest degree offensive or needful of apology or explana- 
tion. These men remained closest friends until death for 
a time separated them, and Dr. Wayland, famed for phi- 
losophy and learning, once remarked that he would cheer- 
fully surrender whatever learning and philosophy he had 
acquired to be able to preach as Richard Fuller did. 

"In estimating preachers," says Curry, in a newspaper 
article, "we must apply a different standard. Every 
preacher, nearly, occupies a pulpit, lifted above the people, 
and separated by 'a great gulf.' Humor, so effective, is 
eliminated, tabooed, and only such bold men as Beecher 
and Spurgeon broke down the barrier. Responses and in- 
quiries from hearers, so suggestive, awakening, are not 
allowed. Generally the preacher is handicapped by a 
manuscript. 



406 J. L. M. CUERY, A BIOGRAPHY 

''Whom have I heard? Their names are legion. Ber- 
syer, Pressens^, Pere Hyacinthe, in France; Cuming, 
Parker, Maclaren, Hall, Stanley, Farrar, Liddon, Spur- 
geon, in England; Stow, Park, Parker, Lorimer, Hall, Greer, 
MacArthur, Dixon, Brooks, Beecher, Hoyt, Jones, Bur- 
rows, Duncan, Poindexter, Hawthorne, Hoge, Palmer, 
Galloway, Pierce, Behrends, Stafford — well, my paper 
would scarcely hold the names of all. For a single sermon. 
Dr. T. G. Jones preached the most powerful one I ever 
heard, and George Pierce the most eloquent one. For 
Cyclopean energy, compulsive appeal, absorbedness in 
Christ, dramatic force (on the stage he would have 
equalled Macready or Booth or Irving), Richard Fuller 
had no superior; for tender persuasiveness. Manly, Sr., had 
few equals; for massive intellect and exaltation of the man 
in man. Brooks was Saul among the Prophets. To select 
one and place him on the loftiest pedestal is impossible. 
For continuity and greatness of success, for number and 
wide circulation of sermons, for marvellous capacity in 
reaching every one in his audience, and making him feel 
that the sermon was especially intended for him . . . 
Spurgeon can have no rival. 

''In some respects, in many respects, John A. Broadus 
was without a superior. Some preachers may, in occa- 
sional efforts, have excelled him; yet as a stated supply, to 
sit a whole year under one man's ministry, he would have 
unhesitatingly been chosen. At conventions, when others 
preached at the same hour, I always heard him, and never 
regretted it. I do not remember ever to have seen him 
with a manuscript, and yet he prepared carefully and mi- 
nutely, not trusting to a full mind on the excitement of the 
occasion. He was never boisterous, never declamatory, 
never tore a passion into tatters. His articulation was 
distinct, his voice was clear, pervasive, pathetic, and he 
possessed such simplicity, charm, sincerity, magnetism, 
power, that he controlled the entire audience. An inex- 
plicable quality he possessed beyond any one I ever heard, 



FRIENDS AND ASSOCIATES 407 

— in the same sermon he secured and held the attention 
of, and entertained and instructed aUke, the old and the 
young, the cultured and the ignorant. In Dr. Jones's ad- 
mirable book on ' Religion in the Army,' he tells us of the 
delight and the success with which Broadus preached in 
camps. Lee and Jackson and Gordon and Hill and Ewell 
and Early, officers and privates by the thousands, in sun- 
shine, in rain, in cold, in darkness, sat or stood and lis- 
tened, entranced, subdued, by the pleadings of the holy 
man of God." 

Among the distinguished men of the Federal Con- 
gress and Cabinet, of earlier and later times, with 
whom Curry was on more or less intimate or friendly 
terms, he makes mention of Henry Winter Davis, 
John Sherman, Elihu Washburne, Thomas S. Bo- 
cock, William M. Evarts and Thomas F. Bayard. 
Of the Presidents he counted among his friends 
Messrs. Buchanan, Grant, Hayes, Cleveland and 
Roosevelt. This reminiscence of Mr. Buchanan at 
the White House is a striking illustration of the in- 
creased cost of living, now ruling in our social 
standards : — 

While dining, no one was present except the President, 
Miss Harriet Lane and myself. He said that, being with- 
out a family, he in his public career determined to be satis- 
fied if his estate reached one hundred thousand dollars. It 
amounted to that sum before he became President; and so 
he concluded to spend liberally his salary, which then was 
twenty-five thousand dollars per annum. ''You know," 
said he, ''that I entertain as much as any of my predeces- 
sors, and yet I have not exhausted what is allotted 
to me." 

His associations with many of the generals of the 
Confederacy during the progress of the War between 



408 J. L. M. CUEEY, A BIOGRAPHY 

the States, and in the years following its close, have 
been heretofore mentioned or detailed in these pages. 
Among these, there was none whom he more ad- 
mired than General Joseph E. Johnston. 

''Gen. Johnston," he writes in his diary, under date of 
August 28, 1877, '' told me that he and Gen. Lee were class- 
mates at West Point, and quite intimate; his father 
having been an adjutant to Gen. Lee's father in the Rev- 
olution, the friendship was hereditary, 
. . . ''Generals Jubal Early and Joe Hooker were at the 
Military Academy at the same time. In the debating so- 
ciety an altercation occurred between them, and Early 
walked across the room and kicked Hooker. Hooker did 
not resent, and Southern students 'cut^ him as a coward. 
In the Florida War Hooker was so coolly brave as to win 
admiration and friendship. In the Mexican War he won 
the appellation of 'Fighting Joe'; and in our Civil War 
he retained the distinction." 

On September 8 of the same year, while at the 
White Sulphur Springs, Curry wrote in his diary: — 

In a conversation with General J. E. Johnston, he said 
that just after his surrender to General Sherman, when 
they were alone. General Sherman showed him a telegram 
announcing the assassination of Lincoln, remarking that 
he had withheld it from his officers, lest they might, con- 
trary to his own opinion, hold Confederates responsible 
for the crime, and be exasperated against them. He was 
debating in his mind how to communicate the intelligence, 
and prevent the inference. In Sherman's book, it appears 
that the information was given in general order that night, 
the complicity of Confederates asserted. 

Sherman's account pi his (J.'s) behavior at the surren- 
der is purely fictitious. 



FRIENDS AND ASSOCIATES 409 

On March 24, 1891, Curry was an honorary pall- 
bearer at General Johnston's funeral. Under that 
date the Washington Post published an interview 
with him about Johnston, of which the following is 
an extract: — 

He was a very reticent man, and talked but little about 
the affairs of his army on any occasion. He was the most 
enthusiastic and scientific soldier I ever knew. Often at 
night, when we were riding along on that memorable re- 
treat, he would talk to me for hours about the famous cam- 
paigns of Wellington or Marlborough, for whom he seemed 
to have an especial admiration; and, of course, of the great 
campaigns of Napoleon. He was as familiar with all those 
great military campaigns as I with my a b c's. He was a 
thorough and indefatigable student of military affairs. 
He was a close reader of Napier's works, and of the dis- 
patches of Napoleon and Wellington, devouring them as a 
student would a work on mathematics before an examina- 
tion. Military works and problems were meat and drink 
to him. Though, while I was attached to his staff, we were 
constantly falling back before Gen. Sherman's army. Gen. 
Johnston was never surprised. He seemed always to know 
what the enemy was going to do before it was done. He 
made his cavalry, as he said cavalry should be, the eyes 
and ears of an army. In consequence his officers were 
able to report to him constantly the enemy's movements. 
I once saw the General in a towering rage, and only 
once. . . . Gen. Sherman always had the highest 
regard for Johnston's military ability. He could never 
hazard anything with Johnston. Johnston was firm, 
abrupt in his manner of speaking, and thoroughly self- 
reliant; yet he was kind-hearted, a true friend, and very 
sympathetic. 

Col. Harvie, of Johnston's staff, says the General was 
the first military man this country has produced. Lee was 
the greatest man, Johnston was the greatest soldier. 



410 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

Between the covers of the Uttle diaries, and scat- 
tered through the numerous notes and newspaper 
cHppings which Curry preserved, may be found many 
other stories, incidents and reminiscences concern- 
ing acquaintances and friends of his, whose names 
are destined to illustrate the pages of contemporary 
history. 



CHAPTER XXI 

EDUCATIONAL THEORIES 

If Curry may not be reckoned a great educational 
theorist in the broadest and most original sense, his 
writings and speeches on education quite clearly 
show that in the course of his experience he had 
worked out and developed a coherent and consistent 
scheme, which proved, in its appHcation to the 
peculiar conditions of the time, to be of excellent 
practical value. This scheme, clearly formulated 
about certain fundamental propositions, is illustrated 
not only in the essays on educational theory that 
are contained in the pages of his Reports to the 
Peabody Board, but appears perhaps most luminous 
in the various speeches and addresses made by him 
to legislative bodies, upon whom he was seeking to 
impress his theories to the end of obtaining their 
practical application. Yet no one of these addresses 
contains the whole of his educational ideal, which is 
obtainable only by segregating and co-ordinating 
the cardinal principles upon which the entire scheme 
rests. 

A primary proposition of his general theory is that 
education and ethics are inseparable, and that the 
development of the ethics which should accompany 
education ought not to stop short of Christianity 
itself. He was a protagonist for school and chiu*ch 
as nearly one as they might be made; and it was his 

411 



412 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

custom, in theory and practice, to walk from the 
doorway of one into the doorway of the other. 

'* What of the night? " he said at Louisville, Kentucky, in 
1883. ''I can only answer: Do what lies nearest in the 
light of duty and conscience and the Scriptures, and leave 
results to God. If any safe solution there is, it must be in 
the school-house and church house, in education and in the 
gospel of Jesus Christ, bearing in mind the object of educa- 
tion is not so much the imparting of knowledge as the de- 
veloping of powers and the building up of inward strength 
of character. Education is no Catholicon, any more than 
freedom is; it does not cure social and political ills. It 
must be supplemented by and allied to the uplifting, reno- 
vating, regenerating power of the Christian rehgion." 

In his contemplation of the significance of educa- 
tion, the development of the most highly cultivated 
intellect, untouched and undirected by such a code 
of ethical conduct as is indicated in the Sermon on 
the Mount, might for him never be ^'a panacea for 
human ills.^' '^Head, hand and heart should be in 
partnership," he declared, with insistent emphasis. 

A second fundamental of Curry's educational 
scheme was that public education is a perpetual 
public duty. If, as he said at Louisville, education 
''does not cure social and political ills," yet without 
it the social statics that Herbert Spencer defines as 
being ''the conditions essential to human happiness" 
may not continue to exist; and in his ultimate judg- 
ment the duty which man owes the State in the mat- 
ter of education falls far short of what the State 
owes man. "It is the right of the unborn to be 
granted an intelligent and refined parentage." 

It is the prime business and duty of each generation to 
educate the next. No legislation in the United States is 



EDUCATIONAL THEOKIES 413 

more important than that which pertains to the universal 
education of our citizens. . . . The basis of free insti- 
tutions is the inteUigence and integrity of the citizen. 
. . . In a popular government an educated people is 
the best constitution. . . . Universal education, even 
approximately, is impossible except through governmental 
direction and public revenues. . . . Primarily it is 
the duty of local communities and of States, by local and 
general taxation, to furnish education for all youth. The 
education of the children of a State is properly a burden on 
property and is the cheapest defence of the property and 
the lives of citizens. 

''The duty of parents and churches must not be ignored 
and underestimated," he told the Georgia legislature in 
December, 1888; "but the whole history of the human race 
shows their insufficiency. . . . Without State system 
and support, general education is impossible. Parental 
and individual and church efforts have never approximated 
the needs of the young. The common claim of the ex- 
clusive right of parents to train their children is based on a 
false assumption of sole ownership. Children belong to 
community and State as well as to father and mother. 
Society is intensely interested in the well-being, the proper 
instruction of youth." 

He preached this doctrine of the State's duty to 
childhood in every Commonwealth that the Peabody 
Fund included in its scope, and with such effect as 
to fasten the modern public education theory upon 
the minds of legislators as a commonplace of thought. 
It was his supreme message and he drove it home 
with unwearied energy and infinite variety. 

The patriotism, intelligence and virtue of the individual 
citizen is the foundation upon which rests free representa- 
tive government. The education and proper training of 
the voters who must choose the public officers to carry on 



414 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

the State's affairs is therefore a sacred duty, which cannot 
be neglected without injury to the State and to society. 
Ignorance is no remedy for anything. 

This was the message that he bore to the law- 
makers of South Carolina in 1890; and in the same 
year he insisted to the legislature of Louisiana that 
*^ Universal education is an imperative duty." 

While thus proclaiming the duty of government 
to provide instruction for the whole body of its 
citizenship, he did not fail to maintain that this pro- 
vision should be under the sole control of the State 
or of some local or municipal authority. He never 
lost sight for a moment, in his most ardent advocacy 
of universal education, of that profound basis of 
political and economic philosophy, upon which the 
whole superstructure of his thought and conduct 
was reared. He carried the apparently complex, and 
yet ever simple, doctrine of constitutional ''strict 
interpretation" not only into his life as a statesman, 
but as undividedly into his life as an educator. 

"In our system of co-equal and correlated States, a na- 
tional system of education is undesirable, as is a national 
University," he declared in 1883; "and the subordination 
of State school systems to Federal direction and control is 
contrary to the genius of our institutions. The separate 
States are not to be absorbed, nor sunk into provincial de- 
pendencies. We seek the harmonious blending of the cen- 
trifugal and centripetal, liberty and union, local self-gov- 
ernment and a Federal government, all preserved in 
strength and orderly unity. 

"National aid to State schools will secure the benefits 
of a national education." 

It was upon this philosophic survey of the educa- 
tional forces, blending into the h?^rmony that springs 



EDUCATIONAL THEOEIES 415 

from the inviolate ^'genius of our institutions/' that 
he estabhshed his support, with constant pen and 
ready tongue, of the Blair Bill. 

He desired the Federal aid for a cause which he 
saw sorely needed pecuniary help; but he did not 
anticipate, as other State Rights leaders of the 
period anticipated and feared, that the grant of 
Federal aid would prove the prelude to the com- 
pulsion of Federal control. 

With all his eagerness to obtain the enlarged 
facilities which he expected from the Blair Bill, he 
valued beyond any Federal aid to education in the 
South the financial assistance which State after 
State, under his influence and that of his coadjutors, 
learned at last to give out of its own strength and 
of its poverty, and with a generosity hardly equalled 
in the history of public education throughout the 
world. Writing to Mr. Winthrop, under date of 
September 27, 1894, about the Peabody Normal 
College at Nashville, he says: — 

Useful as is the College, marvelous as has been its suc- 
cess under its very able President, it is not a substitute for 
our State Normals, and can never do the work of those in- 
dispensable local institutions. 

The vision of a complete State school system was 
clear to his mind. 

The material value of education was another factor 
in Curry's general plan, which he properly considered 
might be appropriately emphasized to a people just 
emerging from the poverty wrought by war and re- 
construction. That education was an asset of 
estimable value in the life of the individual, the 
State and the Republic did not, however, obscure 



416 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

his recognition of the fact that the utihtarian ad- 
vantage to be derived from it was only one of many 
advantages. 

'' Industrial success, productive industry, accumu- 
lation of capital, remunerative wages, national inde- 
pendence, national well-being, cannot be separated 
from general education," he said in his Louisville 
address, above mentioned; and, in 1885, in a speech 
before the legislature of Alabama, he re-asserted the 
proposition in another form: — 

Education is the fundamental basis of general and per- 
manent prosperity. Poverty is the inevitable result of 
ignorance. Capital follows the school-house. 

In an address delivered in 1888 to the legislature 
of Georgia, he made application of the economic 
principle as one equally conducive to the develop- 
ment of good citizenship, and of patriotism itself. 

The lowest considerations of self-interest demand the 
competent support of universal education. Free govern- 
ment is the outcome of diffused intelligence and broad 
patriotism. An ignorant rabble is food for riots and the 
tool of demagogues. 

This proposition, which he dwelt upon wherever 
and whenever he spoke to the law-making bodies 
that controlled the purse-strings of the public 
revenues, was nowhere put by him more forcibly or 
with finer effect than in a speech to the legislature 
of Alabama, on December 2, 1896. 

''Looked at economically," he said on that occasion, "it 
is not difficult to demonstrate the money value of educa- 
tion to individuals and society; and in the very lowest util- 
itarian view which you can take, education is convertible 
into lands and houses and taxable property. Intelligence 



EDUCATIONAL THEORIES 417 

is a great money-maker, and it does not make it either by 
extortion or fraud or corruption. It is a money-maker, be- 
cause it creates products cheaper and better than ignor- 
ance ever did or ever can. Brute force spends itself always 
unproductively. The highest principles of political econ- 
omy and of social well-being demand the universal educa- 
tion of children and the prevention of non-producers 
among men. . . . The true mint of wealth is not at 
Philadelphia nor San Francisco, but is in the school- 
house." 

As a subsidiary part of his larger plan, his general 
scheme included the value of manual training to the 
developing child; and, in elucidating this branch of 
his theory, he drew a significant and notable dis- 
tinction between this ''manual training" and the 
peculiar ''industrial training" which has come to be 
used with distinguished effect and marked advantage 
in the education at Hampton and Tuskegee of 
Indians and negroes. 

''Industrial training," said Curry in a speech before the 
Virginia legislature in the winter of 1891-1892, ''is to give 
special training in the mechanic arts, to teach shoe-mak- 
ing, carpentering, blacksmithing, as a trade. Manual 
training, as the term is limited, is to give a general train- 
ing, a dexterity, to the hands, so that they may readily 
acquire skill in any of the mechanic arts. This is an effec- 
tual educational process, bringing hand, eye and brain to 
work together, developing harmoniously all the powers of 
a human being." 

"The most interesting and profitable changes that have 
been made in the ends of modern education," he told the 
legislature of Georgia, a year or more later, "is the incor- 
poration of manual training in the curriculum, so as to 
bring education into contact with the pursuits of every 
day." 



418 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

As may be inferred from the perusal of earlier 
pages of this book, the normal school stands out 
boldly in Curry's panorama of public education. 
If any one man may be so singled out and honored, 
Curry, by his intense devotion to the idea of scien- 
tific teacher-training, his personal interest in the 
newly born State normal schools, and his faith in 
their future, deserves the title of the '^father of the 
Normal Schools in the South." It is difficult to 
imagine the growth of such powerful foundations as 
the normal colleges at Farmville, Greensboro, Rock 
Hill, Natchitoches, without his fostering care and 
quickening influence. And his conception of the 
College at Nashville as a great central station of 
teaching efficiency and power was an act of pure 
educational inspiration ranking with the visions 
that have given immortality to the great educational 
reformers. 

The imperative and ever unsatisfied need of trained 
teachers is indicated in the organization and con- 
duct of all successful public school systems; and the 
need of the product illustrates the necessity of what 
shall create that product. Public schools, without 
normal schools and colleges to supply them with 
trained teachers, would be as antiquated in the 
modern view of education, as ocean liners without 
steam. 

"Teaching is a science, with methods and principles and 
laws," he said at Blacksburg, Virginia, in 1882. "To direct 
intellectual action, we must understand intellectual ac- 
tion, — the true nature and functions and capabilities and 
order of development of the mind we are seeking to edu- 
cate or instruct. Teaching is based on psychology. Peda- 
gogy is psychology applied to teaching. ... As a 



EDUCATIONAL THEOEIES 419 

necessary part of our public school system, we need normal 
schools for training teachers, — not annexes, attachments, 
but separate and distinct schools. 

"As essential to a public school system, and to the claim 
of the State to educate, are normal schools to fit teachers 
for their work." 

Other sayings of his, on public occasions, and espe- 
cially in the uncertain field of legislation, where his 
most important work was often done, illustrate his 
views of training teachers, and of the need of good 
teachers in the schools. He said in a circular, ad- 
dressed to State Superintendents of Education 
throughout the territory lying within the jurisdiction 
of his duties as Peabody Agent: — 

While practical results are aimed at, it would be unfor- 
tunate should the instruction degenerate into a series of 
drills. Intelligence is the basis of all skill; and appreciation 
of the psychological reasons for the preference given to 
any particular method is regarded as essential to good 
teachers. 

So significant did he deem the education of the 
teacher who was to educate the child, that he was 
insistent upon having rigid investigation into the 
qualifications of the teacher, before he should be 
allowed to come into didactic contact with the mind 
of the child. 

"License to teach," he said to the Virginia legislature in 
February, 1892, "should be given only to those who have 
passed satisfactory examinations in the branches to be 
taught, in the principles, and in the best methods of teach- 
ing;" and he added with a profound insight that epitom- 
ized in its expression the whole philosophy of school-edu- 
cation: "The teacher is the school." 



420 J. L. M. CUEEY, A BIOGEAPHY 

It was a saying worthy of Arnold of Rugby, or of 
any of the great pedagogues, who have illustrated 
in their own lives and careers, as instructors of youth, 
its essential verity. 

Perhaps of all the marks which, — as the hatchet- 
cuts in trees, through a theretofore untraversed 
forest, point the course of the pioneer, — blazon the 
pathway of this adventurer through a region where, 
to many, his propaganda was scarcely less startling 
than had been the results of war itself, none seemed 
more daring, or to this day remains so stoutly 
doubted by many, as his long cherished theory of 
the co-education of the sexes. The proposition, 
when first broached in its less aggressive form of an 
equal opportunity of education to women, failed to 
commend itself to the favorable consideration of a 
society which hardly believed that women needed 
such education as is fit for men, — the education that 
enables its possessor to fight the battles of life. And 
while this doctrine of Curry's, which grew with him 
finally into a dogma that admitted of no contraven- 
tion, came at length to find acceptance with legislators, 
if not with the whole social organism, the co-educa- 
tion theory is yet weighed in the balances of uncer- 
tainty and question by the influences that dominate 
the field of his endeavor. 

^^ Girls ought to have equal advantages with boys 
for higher education," he shouted to his audience 
at Blacksburg, in 1882, with a brusqueness and a 
directness that knew no beating around the bush; 
and nine years later he preached the same gospel to 
the legislature of North Carolina. 

"Faint murmurs of dissent," he said in Raleigh, in 1891, 
"are occasionally whispered against the equal education, 



EDUCATIONAL THEOEIES 421 

but the voice of public justice is beginning to demand that 
those who are to be wives and mothers shall not be treated 
with persevering and shameful injustice." 

The philosophy of Plato, propounding the majestic 
question, '^Is there anything better in a State than 
that both women and men be rendered the very 
best?" and answering it with assured affirmation: 
'^ There is not," points no way, of itself, how this 
one best thing is to be accomplished. But to Curry's 
earnest thought and single mind the road was 
straight and narrow, and its sign-post was ^^Co- 
education." 

"What has been done for higher education of young 
women in the United States has not accorded with the 
boasted respect and deference rendered to the sex, nor 
with what has been so liberally done for young men," 
he said with a fine scorn, in an address before the Win- 
throp Training School on May 12, 1889. "Very few 
institutions for taking young women through advanced 
courses of study have been endowed and supported by 
States; but," he adds, and there is a visible note of tri- 
umph in the words, "Co-education is fortunately finding 
increased adoption in colleges and universities." 

As Curry's phrase, in his letter to his son, pre- 
viously quoted in these pages, and prefixed to the 
volume itself as a sort of text, that men should ^4ive 
in the present and for the future, leaving the dead 
past to take care of itself," expressed his most in- 
timate spiritual attitude toward life, so he expressed 
his most intimate social and political attitude toward 
education, as an agent for human betterment in the 
saying:— 

The public free schools are the colleges of the people; 
they are the nurseries of freedom; their establishment and 



422 J. L. M. CUREY, A BIOGRAPHY 

efficiency are the paramount duty of a republic. The edu- 
cation of children is the most legitimate object of taxation. 

His mind dwelt on education in its social and 
political aspects. He was an educational statesman 
rather than a scientific expert in pedagogy. His 
great aim was to fasten the principle of popular edu- 
cation upon the minds of the people, and to inter- 
weave it into the structure of the State, leaving to 
later generations the working out of the principle 
itself in larger scientific detail. He belongs rather 
with the Martin Luthers, the Miltons, the JefTersons, 
the Matthew Arnolds, and the Horace Manns of the 
world's educational battle, than with the Sturms, 
the Pestalozzis, the Rousseaus, the Frobels, the 
Herbarts of the unending struggle. His papers and 
speeches do not compare with Horace Mann's in 
scientific thoroughness and pedagogic value. They 
did not need to have these qualities. He stood on 
Mann's shoulders and faced another sort of social 
situation; but not Mann himself equalled the inten- 
sity, the hard common sense, the unflagging passion 
with which he lodged his truths in the minds of men. 
He was not a curriculum maker, but a social propa- 
gandist. Yet it is interesting to see how even the 
details of the great process attracted him; and how 
his mind played with the psychological side of the 
problem; and no less interesting to observe how 
acutely his thought took hold upon the technique of 
educational processes, and reached out after the 
truth about the needs of communities in primary, 
industrial and agricultural instruction. The whole 
wide field opened itself to him ; and he had firm hold 
of the unity of education, and perceived all of the 
elements of educational work in one comprehensive 



EDUCATIONAL THEORIES 423 

aggregate, conducing to strengthen and advance the 
life of man. 

From the substance of his unnumbered utterances 
on behalf of what Mr. Winthrop called '^The Great 
Cause/' might be constructed and developed, what 
Curry himself was always too busy to construct and 
develop, had he cared to do so, a concrete total 
system of educational plan and scheme, at once as 
synthetic and as reasonable, though never so original, 
as Herbert Spencer's elaborate system of philosophy. 
But such a scheme, so wrought out, would show little 
that was essentially new. It is in the patience and 
persistence and power of adaptation with which he 
applied old theories and practices to new problems, 
under adventitious circumstances, that his ability as 
a constructive educator may be said to have lain. 
Over and over and over again he repeated his propo- 
sitions, kindled with his hopes and aspirations, and 
warmed with his eloquence; until the dull ear of his 
audience awoke to listening, and he entered at last 
into its brain and heart. The State's duty toward 
public education; its moral and ethical significance, 
not only for culture but for the progress demanded 
by modern life; the material value of education; 
the relative attitudes of State and Nation, under our 
political organization, toward public instruction; 
manual training; industrial training; normal schools 
and trained teachers; equal opportunity of educa- 
tion for the sexes; co-education in colleges and higher 
institutions of learning — the absolute necessity for 
the wise training of a backward race of different 
ethnic type, set down in our society, in order to pro- 
tect that society from deterioration and inefficiency, — 
these were his constant and never-forgotten themes. 



424 J. L. M. CUREY, A BIOGRAPHY 

He felt kindly toward the negro, but his largest 
thought was for the integrity of our whole life. 
It was these theories upon which he addressed 
hearkening legislatures, and with which he appealed 
to society. Curry first appeared as a friend of negro 
education in the summer of 1865, when he presided 
over a mass-meeting in Marion which made provi- 
sion for negro schools. There was practically no 
objection by the whites, even in the lower South, to 
negro education, until unwise training on the part 
of unworthy teachers, and a foolish idea of the use 
to which education was to be put by the negroes 
themselves, began to alarm the whites. There were 
true missionaries among the Northern teachers, but 
there were also rascals who took advantage of the 
negro, fleeced him of his dollars and led him to think 
that education meant immediate advancement to 
Congress or some high public office. Soon the 
Freedman's Bureau took a hand in the matter, and 
the great business of education so long directed as 
an individualistic enterprise by the Southern States 
became an affair of government, and seemed in the 
eyes of the blacks and whites to be a sort of '^con- 
tinuation of hostilities against the vanquished." 
The average New England teacher approached the 
task, however sincerely, as if the negro was simply 
a backward white man, an untaught '^ Mayflower 
descendant." The aptitudes, capabilities and social 
needs of the negro were disregarded. The Southern 
white teacher quickly came to avoid the work as a 
form of treason, because he thought the prime puiv 
pose of the whole educational scheme was to reverse 
all social and political conditions. True teachers of 
the negro race, like General Armstrong, and the great 



EDUCATIONAL THEORIES 425 

influences that have proceeded from Hampton 
Institute, like Booker Washington and a small group 
of thoughtful negro leaders of the past two decades, 
have found their hardest task in trying to undo what 
was done in those confused days, partly in passion 
and sullen pride of power, partly in ignorance, partly 
in haste by superficial zealots, sometimes, but rarely, 
let us hope, in ugly hate. Whatever the causes at 
work, the sad fact remains that the most difficult and 
delicate social and political problem of modern days 
was frightfully bungled, and a wedge of iron driven 
between the whites and blacks, making difficult for 
generations any sort of sympathetic co-operation in 
a work of racial adjustment, calling for the clearest 
and jus test human wisdom. The highest claim of 
J. L. M, Curry to the rank of true statesmanship is 
that he never lost his head in this tangled matter, 
nor hardened his heart. There is but one thing to 
do with a human being in this world and that is to 
give him wise training for his day and his need. He 
anchored himself to this principle. He did not lose 
heart nor grow violent. While he did not hesitate 
to characterize the reconstruction educational meth- 
ods ^^as a scheme to subject the Southern people to 
negro domination and to secure the States per- 
manently for partisan ends," he saw the sane thing 
to do, and he pleaded for it from that summer day in 
the little Alabama town three months after Lee's sol- 
diers had returned to their ploughing until his death 
in 1903, when common sense had begun to rule negro 
education, when great schools like Hampton and 
Tuskegee had arisen as experiment stations to 
propagate his ideas as well as those of their founders, 
and when the Southern people, with an unexcelled 



426 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

political patience, steadiness of purpose and power 
of will, had removed the negro from the shambles 
of party strife, had set him in the path he should 
have been placed in thirty years before, and, in a 
sense, had settled a question, or a phase of it, at 
least, more baffling than any presented for solution 
to the men of our race in our time. 

^'I shall not stultify myself by any fresh argument in 
favor of negro education, "he declared to a legislative audi- 
ence — a generation after his first speech for the negroes at 
Marion — "but I must be pardoned for emphasizing the fact 
that there is greater need for the education of the other 
race. The white people are to be the leaders, to take the 
initiative, to have the directive control in all matters per- 
taining to civilization and the highest interests of our be- 
loved land. History demonstrates that the Caucasian will 
rule. He ought to rule. He made our Constitution; he 
achieved our independence; he is identified with all the 
true progress, all high civilization, and if true to his mis- 
sion, while developing his own capabilities, he will lead 
out all other races as far and as fast as their good and 
their possibilities will justify. This white supremacy does 
not mean hostility to the negro, but friendship for him. 
On the intelligent and more refined class of the white peo- 
ple the negroes have been compelled to rely heretofore for 
the educational advantages which they possess, and on 
them in the future they must depend to prevent a widen- 
ing of the breach between the races and to bring about 
their higher advancement. It is hopeless to think of the 
small number of educated negroes protecting themselves 
against wrongs unless there be men and women cultured, 
courageous, broad minded to correct, elevate, and lead 
public opinion. Some wild enthusiasts of the negro race, 
some purbKnd fanatics of the white race, may expect or 
desire subordination or inferiority of the white people, but 
that is the crazy dream of a kind of racial cosmopolitanism 



EDUCATIONAL THEORIES 427 

or fusion which portends loss of national unity and is the 
forerunner of decay. 

*' Much has been said — too much cannot be said — of the 
negro problem. It does not 'down' at any man's bidding. 
It is a living, ever-present, all-pervasive, apparently irre- 
movable fact. Its solution baffles statesmanship and phil- 
anthropy. Education — moral, intellectual, industrial, 
civic — should be persistently, generously furnished, but, 
if universal, is slow in its results and while immensely 
beneficial does not settle irreconcilable racial antagonisms, 
and it leaves two heterogeneous, unassimilable peoples as. 
coequal citizens with growing cleavage in the same terri- 
tory. Preachers, sociologists, humanitarians, with their 
altruistic speculations, may from a safe distance pooh- 
pooh the problem, but there it is, and there it will re- 
main. 

"Recent tragic occurrences at the South are not the 
gravamen of the problem. They are horrifying, but are 
incidents. The unmentionable atrocities, filhng the timid 
with direful apprehensions, are committed by a few 
brutes, who, slaves to appetites, have had their moral per- 
ceptions, if discernible at all, blunted by undeveloped in- 
tellects, low companionship, descent from depraved moth- 
ers, fiery intoxicants, and certainly are far below the aver- 
age and have not the sympathy and approval of their race. 
It needs no argument that the more debased, the less self- 
reliant, the more unskilled, the more thriftless, and unem- 
ployed the race or any portion of it is, the more dangerous 
it will be, the less desirable as inhabitant, as laborer, as 
citizen, as voter. Plato said a man not sufficiently or 
properly trained is the most savage animal on earth. 
Nothing can be more illogical, more indefensible, more un- 
just, more cruel, more harmful to both races than to hold 
the negroes responsible for the outrages of a few of their 
race. Besides, these crimes hardly enter into the problem, 
which is not one of criminology or vengeance, but exceed- 
ing in magnitude and gravity any now existing in a civ- 



428 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

ilized country, and demanding the patience, wisdom, states- 
manship, justice, charity of the best of the land." 

The capstone to his whole scheme was his in- 
sistence upon the harmonious co-operation of all 
sorts and grades of schools; and its foundation was 
his final belief in the paramount importance of the 
public elementary schools. 

"I am a friend of the University, my alma mater," he 
said to the law-makers of Georgia, — ''of colleges, of the 
theological schools, of high schools; and I would do every- 
thing that was reasonable and right for their promotion. 
But if forced to the alternative of choosing between them 
and free schools for the masses, the colleges of the people, 
without the slightest doubt or hesitation I should give my 
voice and vote for the latter." 

In this statement Curry, like Jefferson, in his 
famous decision for a newspaper without a govern- 
ment, was startling his audiences into seeing his 
point. He was too clear visioned not to have sight 
of the unity of the whole educational process, and 
to know that the great problem for his successors 
was to effect the unification of the educational forces 
of the State. 

And so, after all is said, Curry^s philosophy of 
education would seem to hark back at most points 
to that of Mr. Jefferson, whose views as to the in- 
struction of the citizen by the State have been pre- 
sented upon an earlier page. But the methods of 
their propaganda were necessarily diiTerent; and the 
earlier statesman's ideals wear the stamp of a larger 
originality. 

Jefferson, the avatar of republican education in 
the South, living in an aristocratic age and in the 



EDUCATIONAL THEORIES 429 

environment of a society that had its political, its 
economic and its social basis in the dominance by 
the few of the many, in his efforts to educate the 
masses perceived with characteristic intelligence 
that he must necessarily elevate the citizen from the 
eminence of the State University. Curry, on the 
other hand, emerging from the wreck of that earlier 
society, into an atmosphere where democracy was 
becoming conscious of itself to the point of triumph, 
saw, in his turn, that the education of his day and 
generation must begin with the common school, 
and touching the people everywhere, lead them from 
the lower to the higher altitude. 

Thus, each of these educational statesmen, con- 
forming himself to the subtle and mysterious in- 
fluence which moulds and guides the centuries, 
wrought out his problem after his fashion, with 
such success as only those encounter who work in 
consonance with the spirit of the age in which they 
live. 



CHAPTER XXII 

CONCLUSION 

Out of the richness and abundance of the materials 
which he left behind him, it has been sought in this 
biography to have its subject set forth himself and 
his career as much as possible in his own language 
and fashion, and in those of his friends, with such 
comment only as the narrative has seemed to re- 
quire, and such interpellation and relation of facts 
as was necessary to preserve and illustrate the thread 
of the discourse, and fix the continuity of the story. 
In this wealth of quotation from diaries and records 
and letters are very clearly to be discovered by the 
reader, the character, the capacity, the ambitions, 
the moral fibre of the man himself, no less than the 
translated history of his life, his noble career and his 
lofty achievements. There is little need of any 
lengthy summing up of a case, whose incidents in 
consecutive significance have been detailed from the 
witness-stand during its progress, with such sim- 
plicity and exactness as, at once, to establish them 
in the mind, and to enforce conviction of their truth. 

And so, because Curry has thus largely told his 
own story in this volume, it is not deemed necessary 
to seek to draw from it, when told, a moral that is 
obvious, or to endeavor further to adorn a tale that 
is of itself full of the interest which must inevitably 
accompany any genuine ''human-document.^' 

430 



CONCLUSION 431 

His life covered a period of time in American 
history of such vital and violent change, of such 
spiritual trial and emotional strain as either to 
confuse hopelessly or to wreck the career of many 
strong men, but Curry held to a true and steady 
course. 

In this difficult period he served his country and 
society as statesman, soldier, teacher, preacher, 
orator, diplomat and educator; and by his example 
illustrated perfectly the precept of the Apostle, 
^^ forgetting those things that are behind, and reach- 
ing to those things which are before." 

Yet his forgetfulness was never of elementary 
principles, or of the significance of a tragic past. 
Regarding the philosophy of life as lying in the right 
adaptation of self to circumstances, and believing that 

''To do 
That which before us lies in daily life 
Is the prime wisdom," 

he bent all his energies to rehabilitating the waste- 
places of his country, and to building up a new 
society on the ruins of that which had been over- 
thrown. He became an American in the broadest 
and most catholic sense of the term, without ever 
failing to remember that he was a Southerner and 
^'an ex-Confederate"; and his loyalty to the flag of 
a reunited country was not tempered nor restrained 
by his equal loyalty to the old creeds and the old 
landmarks, established in the faith of the fathers. 

In his diary for 1868, — the third year after the 
close of the War between the States, he wrote this 
translation from the First Book of Thucydides: — 

War, least of all things, proceeds on definite principles, 



432 J. L. M. CUEKY, A BIOGRAPHY 

but adopts most of its contrivances from itself to suit the 
occasion; in the course of which, he that deals with it with 
good temper, is more secure; while he that engages in it 
with passion, makes the great failure. 

He was a soldier; but he was a statesman more. 
In a letter written to his son from France in 1886, 
he said: — 

A Frenchwoman asked Mary to-day, what became of 
our Great Army, after the War between the States. She 
very happily replied, in expressive phrase: "They went 
home." How our great Republic can exist with a handful 
of soldiers — about 25,000 men — is incomprehensible to 
Europeans. Lord Sahsbury's remedy for Ireland is '*a 
good dose of drastic coercion." His gospel is brute force, 
his missionaries are the police and the hangman. Glad- 
stone's policy of justice and right as the best peace-makers, 
is rejected. France, Germany and Russia have each their 
million of men under arms. Italy, Austria and Spain must 
have their able-bodied men all enrolled in their armies. 
War, force, coercion, are the evangel. 

It is a significant fact that while Curry, after the 
War between the States, became conspicuous among 
Southern public men for his Americanism, it was 
never at the expense of the individual. He abhorred 
paternalism, and strove for provision for general and 
public education to prepare each child of the nation 
for independent thinking and intelligent individual 
citizenship. He was not blinded by the glory of 
national prestige to the need of national morals; 
and while he invoked the Federal aid to general 
education because he thought the peculiar circum- 
stances demanded such aid, his most efficient educa- 
tional work was done through the instrumentalities 
of States, cities, and communities. 



CONCLUSION 433 

Of his character and career as churchman and 
Christian, these pages -are already full. He realized 
keenly the need of fixed religious habits in the great 
democracy of which he was a citizen; and he de- 
clared that ^'habitual attendance on public worship 
meets a requirement of our moral nature." One of 
his regrets, during his stay at Madrid, was that the 
various distractions of official life, as well as the 
uncertain provisions for protestant worship, inter- 
fered too much with his public devotions. He was 
an apostle of religious liberty, and he was unre- 
servedly opposed to any union of Church and State. 
He did not believe in "too much machinery" in 
religious propaganda; and held with a simple faith 
to the efhcacy of God's Word. On Sunday, June 3, 
1877, he wrote in his journal: "Read Colenso on 
Romans. Rationalism in the interpretation of the 
Scriptures is nearly as dangerous as skepticism." 

As an educator, he was conspicuously an agitator. 
Emerging from an antique and discarded educational 
status, he entered upon the career of a proselyting 
Peter the Hermit, preaching a veritable crusade with 
all the fiery vehemence and undaunted courage of the 
zealot. It is absolutely beyond contradiction that 
in this crusade he stood at first almost alone among 
his people ; and if the days of a later generation bear 
witness to a wondrous change for the better, the 
greater therefore should be his honor and his glory. 

Towards the end of his life, he wrote: — 

In 1853 and 1855 I was again a representative from Tal- 
ladega County (in the Alabama Legislature); and as a 
member of the Committee on Education sustained Judge 
Meek's bill, which became the first law on the statute-book 
establishing public schools. In the Coosa River Associa- 



434 J. L. M. CUERY, A BIOGRAPHY 

tion, as a delegate to and officer of that body of Baptist 
Churches, I wrote reports and made speeches for educa- 
tion; and I may say, without vanity, that it was through 
my influence and persistent efforts that the Baptist Male 
High School in Talladega was established, organized and 
conducted until the War between the States closed it, as 
it did many other like institutions in the South. 

By a singular nemesis, the large brick building passed 
into the hands and control of the American Missionary 
Association, who established that excellent institution, the 
Talladega College, for the training of negroes. I have sel- 
dom been more affected by environments than when, some 
years ago, I stood in this building and addressed faculty 
and students, and a mixed assembly of white and colored, 
some of the latter being my former slaves. 

It was an episode worthy of recordation, and as 
significant in its token of great and irremediable 
change, as was that indicated in the famous figure 
of Macaulay's essay, in which he depicts the New 
Zealander of a coming era contemplating from an 
arch of London Bridge the ruins of St. Paul's. 

To Curry's successful career as a diplomat the 
statesmen of his generation have borne disinterested 
witness. Winthrop, with that generous tact and 
friendliness which always seized the opportunity to 
say the possible kindly word, or do the possible 
kindly thing, wrote to him in November, 1886: — 

So many things have happened of late that I hardly 
remember when I heard from you last. But I have heard 
of you from more than one source. At our Harvard Jubi- 
lee I sat between Bayard and Endicott at the table, — next 
but one to President Cleveland. Mr. Bayard spoke em- 
phatically of the success of your diplomacy, and of your 
having just settled a delicate question. After that great 
day was over, and we had taken one day to rest, Mrs. Win- 



CONCLUSION 435 

throp and I ran on to New York, and spent a few days at 
the Fifth Avenue Hotel. Who should be there but Wm. 
Wirt Henry. We talked much about you and Mrs. Curry. 

Of Curry's work as an author there is no room to 
speak here, beyond a record of the fact that his 
fecundity of literary production was marvellous in 
the light of his other work. In the Report of the 
American Historical Association for 1897, Professor 
Thomas M. Owen gives a bibliography of the State 
of Alabama; and in it is a partial list of Curry's 
published works, — books, pamphlets, speeches, es- 
says, and the like. Among over eight hundred and 
fifty authors, he stands first in the number of his 
productions, having to his credit eighty- two. These 
are classified as follows: Books, about four; pam- 
phlets, reports, etc., about thirty-five; speeches and 
addresses, about twenty-seven; articles in magazines 
and newspapers, about sixteen. It may be added 
that the total number of his magazine and newspaper 
articles would mount up into the hundreds. 

His oratory, in an age and a country of orators, 
was unusual and compelling. It has been described 
as ^'at once calm, intellectual, persuasive and mag- 
netic." He had the physical presence, the distinc- 
tion of manner, the quality of voice that win the 
attention of masses of men. In the Federal Con- 
gress he commanded and kept the attention of the 
House; before the legislatures of States, in his 
educational campaigns, he spoke with the accom- 
plishment of results; as a pulpit-speaker and preacher 
he was sought by dozens of city churches; and upon 
the hustings he ranked with the strongest political 
debaters of his day. 

In the social relations, Dj*. Curry was a figure of 



436 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

unusual charm and graciousness. His person was 
erect, ample and well proportioned. His shock of 
black hair, whitening with the years, brushed back 
from a broad, low forehead, his ivory skin and clear 
hazel-gray eyes full of frankness and sympathy, 
prepossessed the eye of those who saw him upon the 
platform or in the drawing-room. He had the social 
instincts of an aristocrat, and exemplified in the best 
fashion the grand air of an age now gone, which 
greatly exalted manners and bred a quality of be- 
havior that seems archaic and overwrought in our 
directer era, but which was, in reality, very beautiful 
and distinguished, and by its passing has somehow 
robbed life of something that made for the lessening 
of vulgarity. His demeanor, like that of so many of his 
contemporaries, was a wonderful mingling of dignity 
and condescension, of gaiety and reserve, of intense 
self-consciousness without a suggestion of selfishness. 
Life and living were for him serious, beautiful, 
reverential things. He esteemed himself highly and 
he lived rigidly up to the standard he demanded of 
himself. The age of chivalry had not gone for 
him in his attitude towards women, for he had been 
singularly blessed in his relations with womanhood; 
nor the age of romance in his feeling for childhood 
and youth. He loved good talk and pleasant people, 
a good table and the good things the flesh of 
man craves, including a good story. With a varied 
human experience enriched by wide travel there 
were few themes upon which he could not discourse 
interestingly. He could Hsten charmingly enough, 
but bore with ill-concealed impatience any lack of 
attention to his own speech, and distinctly did not 
belong to the class of talkers who make of the noble 



CONCLUSION 437 

art of conversation a series of sallies and silences. 
Macaulay and Dr. Johnson were more after his heart 
than the polished epigrams of the great French 
talkers. He loved the approval of his fellows and 
was almost naive in his desire for applause and in the 
exhilaration and increase of power the applause gave 
him. Though bold and courageous in his opinions, 
he was unhappy if he was out of sympathy with his 
environments, and the master craving of his heart 
was for adaptability to his time. He could be a 
little overpowering at times in his suggestion of 
self-confidence and easy strength, and in a certain 
distaste for opposition, but never to the point of 
offense; and behind his high bearing, and sometimes 
imperious ways, lurked quick tears of sympathy and 
swift impulses of gentleness and helpfulness to every 
living thing. His attitude towards the negro race 
was particularly fine. He was their true friend. 
His was perhaps the first voice to declare that there 
was no place for a helot in our system and that the 
negro must be trained properly for life in this nation. 
He was among the first to urge common sense in the 
form of industrial education as against sentimental- 
ity in the education of the negro. He denounced 
vehemently the proposition to divide taxes for 
educational purposes, on the basis of race. Person- 
ally he moved among them in his ministrations as 
one fancies Lee might have done, treating them in 
their new status exactly as he would have treated 
them in their old, unconscious of them socially, free 
of fear of them in his nerves, wanting to help them 
for their own sake, thinking of them kindly, but 
thinking more profoundly of American life as affected 
by their presence. 



438 J. L. M. CURKY, A BIOGRAPHY 

There was no doubt in his mind of the necessity 
for the continued rule of intelUgence and the direc- 
tion of pubUc affairs by the wisdom of the white race, 
but he also felt deeply that the strong must use 
justice always or cease to be the strong. He believed 
in the theory of social separateness as necessary to 
the integrity of the white race, and equally necessary 
to the development of any true racial pride or racial 
consciousness in the negro race. 

The writer of this paragraph saw Curry for the 
first time, in 1883. It was his fortune as a young 
man in his first speech in public, to introduce the 
famous speaker to an audience in a thriving little 
Southern town. The speech, a passionate plea for 
education, made a lasting impression as did the man 
himself, in manner, presence, dress, demeanor. Men 
of such power did not ordinarily spend themselves 
in such a cause — and the cause itself suddenly loomed 
up in its right proportions. It was a great coinci- 
dence that such a cause found at just the right time 
such a man to incarnate its dignity and draw dis- 
ciples to its service. 

It was interesting to observe how much he enjoyed 
the exercise of his oratorical power, and if his audi- 
ence responded there was imparted to him a mount- 
ing enthusiasm that so expressed itself in tone and 
gesture and manner as to move strongly any body 
of men. It was old-fashioned oratory to be sure, 
differing widely from the manner of severe clear 
statement into which our speaking habit is drifting 
with good results on the whole, but it was interesting 
to note how people woke up under it and felt its 
power and went away moved to action by reason of 
it. There was a singular difference between his 



CONCLUSION 439 

written speeches and those delivered extempora- 
neously. In the former appear a certain stateliness, 
restraint and great sobriety of diction and figure. 
In the latter he gave himself full rein, acted the part 
and uttered himself in flowing and picturesque 
rhetoric. Like Gladstone, what he received from 
the audience as vapor, he returned to them as rain. 
To the man himself, the very soul and heart of 
him, no higher tribute can be paid than that which 
is contained in a letter written to him in 1892, by 
his wife's mother, in which she said: — 

Twenty-five years to-day since you entered my family as 
my son, — and such a son, — one of whom Fve always felt 
proud and thankful. Twenty-five years of love and kind- 
ness to me, during which time I've never had occasion to 
think or speak an unkind word or thought of you. May 
the Good Lord, who has followed you both with his richest 
blessings, continue to bless you with a long life of useful- 
ness and continued love and prosperity, is the sincere 
prayer of the mother who loves you. 

It was a prayer that was answered in abundance; 
and if man may be the judge of divine dispensation, 
rightly answered. For, beyond intellect, and in- 
dustry, and perseverance, and adaptability, and 
courage, and faith, of which he possessed an un- 
wonted share in all, stands and persists the great 
composite of these things, and of yet others of which 
it is made, — the indefinable force called character. 

It was this vital force of character, that enabled 
him, as he did, to turn his face to the sunrise of a 
new day after the great sunsetting of the War, yet 
with an ever unfaltering loyalty to the watches of 
that ended night. 

''Crushed, subjugated, impoverished we were by the 



440 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

War," he wrote to his son, twenty-one years after Appo- 
mattox, — "insulted, tyrannized over, outraged by Recon- 
struction Acts; but of what avail is it to keep alive passion, 
and cherish hatred? Of the abstract right of a State, in 
1860, to secede, under our then form of government, I 
have not the shadow of a doubt. But no conquered people 
ever wrote the accepted history of the conquest. To go 
about shaking our fists and grinding our teeth at the con- 
querors, dragging as a heavy weight the dead corpse of the 
Confederacy, is stupid and daily suicidal. Let us live in 
the present and for the future, leaving the dead Past to 
take care of itself, drawing only profitable lessons from 
that and all history." 

With this feeling of hopefulness and purpose, yet 
without recantation of any principle, he gave him- 
self to the great work of his life, — the cause of 
Education in the South; and in his story of building 
up the waste-places, he set always the Peabody 
Fund in the forefront. Of it he once wrote, with 
poignant feeling and unequivocal assertion, that it 
had ^'been a most potent agency in creating and pre- 
serving a bond of peace and unity and fraternity 
between the North and the South. It initiated an 
era of good feeling; for the gift, as said by Mr. 
Winthrop, ^was the earliest manifestation of a 
spirit of reconciliation toward those from w^hom we 
had been so unhappily alienated, and against whom 
we of the North had been so recently arrayed in 
arms.' No instrumentality has been so effective in 
the South in promoting concord, in restoring fellow- 
ship, in cultivating a broad and generous patriotism, 
and apart from its direct connection with schools, 
it has been an unspeakable blessing in cementing 
the bonds of a lately dissevered Union." 



CONCLUSION 441 

Of the man and his work the Trustees of the Pea- 
body Fund have left a just, if glowing estimate 
in the memorial minute adopted at their meet- 
ing, held in the City of New York, October 8, 
1903. There were present at that meeting Chief 
Justice Fuller, the Chairman, and Messrs. Samuel 
A. Green, James B. Porter, J. Pierpont Morgan, 
William A. Courtenay, Henderson M. Somerville, 
Charles E. Fenner, Daniel C. Oilman, George F. 
Hoar, Hoke Smith, William C. Doane and Morris 
K. Jesup. 

The Chairman announced the recent death of Dr. 
Curry, the General Agent of the Board; and upon 
request Dr. Oilman presented a memorial paper 
which, on motion of Judge Fenner, was made by the 
Trustees an expression of their sense of the services 
rendered by him, and of their loss and that of the 
country in his death. This paper, adopted by a 
rising vote of the distinguished body, was as fol- 
lows: — 

The Trustees of the Peabody Education Fund grate- 
fully record their appreciation of the services of Hon. J. L. 
M. Curry, LL.D., as General Agent of the Fund. 

On the death of Dr. Barnas Sears, the wise originator of 
the methods adopted by this Board under Mr. Winthrop's 
guidance, Doctor Curry, in 1881, was unanimously ap- 
pointed his successor. He had already acquired distinc- 
tion as a soldier, a legislator, a minister of the Gospel, and 
a college-president, and his acquaintance with the leaders 
of public opinion and with the educational conditions of 
the Southern States, enabled him to enter upon the ad- 
ministrative responsibilities to which he was called with 
every assurance of success. These expectations were com- 
pletely sustained. A few years later, at the suggestion of 
President Hayes, who was a member of the two boards, 



442 J. L. M. CUERY, A BIOGRAPHY 

Doctor Curry was made the executive officer of the Slater 
Fund as well as of the Peabody, and in this double capacity 
he travelled widely and constantly in the South, visited 
colleges, normal schools, industrial schools, and common 
schools, attended educational conventions, and addressed 
not infrequently, and at their request, both houses of the 
legislature in many, if not all of the Southern States. He 
was also called upon in the Northern States to discuss 
those phases of education with which he was familiar. 

Few of his contemporaries can be compared with Doc- 
tor Curry as an orator, so that it is doubtless due to him, 
in a large degree, that the present awakening of the South 
to the importance of public provision for education should 
be attributed. He was keenly alive to the responsibilities 
of his position, unwearied by the long journeys which they 
involved, conscious of radical differences of opinion among 
those whom he met, and undismayed by perplexities. His 
enthusiasm for education, his consideration for others, and 
his sincere desire to promote the welfare of all the people, 
enabled him to exert a profound and serviceable influence, 
which will never be forgotten. 

Twice during his connection with this Board he was 
appointed by different administrations to represent the 
United States at the Spanish Court. With these excep- 
tions his services were uninterrupted until a few months 
before his death, when his physical powers gave way. 
The Board provided for his rehef from such duties as he 
was willing to throw off, yet his vigor had departed never 
to return. He was unable to attend the special meeting of 
the Board in January last, and he died near Asheville, N. 
C, February 12, 1903, in his seventy-eighth year. He was 
buried in Richmond, and at the funeral his colleagues in 
this Board were represented by the treasurer, Mr. J. Pier- 
pont Morgan. Mrs. Curry, who was then a great invalid, 
died a few weeks later. 

It is not easy to sum up in a few sentences the character- 
istics of this remarkable man. His versatility is shown by 



CONCLUSION 443 

the various positions to which he was called — the bar, the 
ministry, the legislature, the army, the Congress of the 
Confederate States, the Congress of the United States, the 
professorship of law, the administration of two educational 
trusts, the mission to Spain. It was twenty years after the 
outbreak of the Civil War when he entered upon his task 
as a promoter of peace and union by the agency of educa- 
tion; and during the twenty-two years that still remained 
to him of life, his other distinctions , if they did not vanish, 
were quite subordinate to that which came from his con- 
nection with this Fund. As an adviser to the Trustees, as 
the official visitor to the schools which were aided by the 
Board, as the authorized exponent and advocate of gen- 
eral education, as the eloquent and forcible speaker upon 
the public platform, he won the admiration and respect of 
his associates and colleagues. Other leaders will un- 
doubtedly come forward, but the managers of this Trust 
will never fail to associate the names of Sears and Curry 
with those of Peabody and Winthrop. To these four men 
perpetual gratitude is due. 

To justly appreciate the character of Curry, it 
should be remembered that he had not reached his 
prime when our great national drama, fate deter- 
mined and fate driven, had passed from argument 
into war, and he, himself, caught in the grip of that 
same fate, with all his gentleness and tenderness, 
became of those whose *^ faith and truth on war^s 
red touchstone rang true metal." In the strength 
of middle life and in the serene wisdom of old age, 
this fortunate man found himself living in another 
world, and with sufficient strength of heart, which 
is courage, to live in it and of it and for it, with a 
spirit unspoiled by hate or bitter memories, with a 
heart unfretted by regrets and with a purpose un- 
shaken by any doubt. A great soul is needed to 



444 J. L. M. CUKEY, A BIOGEAPHY 

pass from one era to another in such fashion as this. 
The strand of every revolutionary epoch is lined 
with wrecks of pure and lovable men who had not 
the faith and courage to will to live and serve another 
time. Dr. Curry possessed this quality of courage 
in high degree. Indeed, for the first time he had 
sight of the possibility of an undivided country, rid 
of sectionalism and provincialism and hindering 
custom and tradition, conscious of its destiny, as- 
sured of its nationality, striving to fit itself for the 
work of a great nation in civilization. He had 
sight, too, of his own section, idealized, to him, by 
fortitude and woe, adjusting itself in dignity and 
suffering and power to the spirit of the modern 
world. What is there for a strong man to do? — 
we may fancy himself asking himself in the silence 
of his soul. There could be no bickerings for such 
men as him, no using of his great powers to find place 
for himself by mu'sing the feeling of hatred and 
revenge in the breasts of proud and passionate races. 
There could be no crude, racial scorn, no theatrical 
pettiness, no vain, fatuous blindness, or puerile 
obstinacy. '^Not painlessly had God remoulded 
and cast anew the nation.^' The pain had indeed 
smitten his soul, but his eyes were clear enough to 
see God's great hand in the movements of society 
and to realize the glory of new-birth out of pain, 
and his desire was quickly aflame to be about the 
work that re-creates and sets in order. Like all 
sincere, unselfish men to whom life means helpful- 
ness, he saw his task lying before him — like a sunlit 
road stretching straight before the traveler's feet. 
He was to walk in that path for all his remaining 
days. The quality of his mind, the sum of his gifts 



CONCLUSION 445 

and graces, the ideals of contemporary civilization 
suggested political preferment, but no consideration 
of self or fortune could swerve him from his course. 
There dwelt in him a leonine quality of combat and 
struggle, a delight of contest, a rising of all his powers 
to opposition that had only one master in his soul, 
and that master was the Christian instinct for ser- 
vice. He was once heard to declare to a great audi- 
ence that it was the proudest duty of the South to 
accomplish the education of every child in its bor- 
ders — high or low, bond or free, black or white. 
The only response to his appeal was silence. He 
shouted, ^'I will make you applaud that sentiment.^' 
With strident voice and shaking of the head, after 
the manner of the oratory of the olden time, he 
pleaded for human freedom. He pictured to his audi- 
ence the ruin that may be wrought by hate, and the 
beauty of justice and sympathy until he awakened 
in them the god of justice and gentleness that lies 
sleeping in the human heart, and the applause rolled 
up to him in a storm. 

Over at Lexington, by the quiet flowing river, and 
the simple hills, Robert E. Lee saw the same vision, 
because there dwelt in him, too, the same simplicity, 
sincerity and unselfishness. The philosophic stu- 
dent of our national story will one day appraise and 
relate how much' it meant to that story that the 
vision of Lee was not disturbed nor distorted by 
dreams or fancies that in all ages have beset the 
brain of the hero of the people. This quiet man at 
Lexington had led mighty armies to victory, and had 
looked defeat and ruin in the face with epic fortitude. 
He had stood the supreme figure amid the fierce joys 
and shoutings of a mighty day. His name rang 



446 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

around the world foremost in the fellowship of the 
heroes of the English race; but the vision that ap- 
peared to Lee, the conqueror and warrior, was the 
same that appeared to Curry, the scholar and stu- 
dent and orator. It was a vision of many milhons 
of childhood standing impoverished and untaught 
amid new duties, new occasions, new needs, new 
worlds of endeavor, appeahng with outstretched 
hands to the grown-up strength of their generation, 
to know why they should not have a country to love, 
an age to serve, a work to do, and a training for that 
work. Alien to this new generation were the sub- 
tleties of divided sovereignty, or the responsibility 
for the presence of the African in our life, and strange 
to their eyes and ears the fading fires and retreating 
noises of battle and of war. The vision was life — 
unconquered, tumultuous, beautiful, wholesome, re- 
generative young life — asking a chance of its elders 
to live worthily in its world and time. The elders 
had had their day, and had had acquaintance with 
achievement and sadness and defeat, but here stood 
undefeated youth, coming on as comes on a fresh 
wave of the sea, with sunlight in its crest, to take the 
place of its fellow just dashed against the shore. 
*^Life is greater than any theory! We ask the right 
to live!" said this vision. 

Lee and Curry saw this vision, and thousands of 
like souls followed their leading and found their tasks 
and were happy with their work lying before them 
and their hearts asking no other blessedness. Let all 
Americans be grateful to the God of nations that He 
had us enough in His care to choose for us such lead- 
ers as these, ^' whose strength was as the strength 
of ten, because their hearts were pure.'^ Lee gave 



CONCLUSION 447 

his great example and a few years of noble service to 
the nation, and passed, like Arthur, 'Vhile the new 
sun arose upon a new day/' A happier fortune be- 
fell Curry. There was left to him over two decades 
of time in which to strive for the realization of his 
dreams and the fulfillment of his plans. 

Our democracy, with its amazing record of 
achievement in the subduing of the continent, has 
nothing finer to show than the example of these two 
men in a time of great passion and headiness, save 
perhaps the example of another American. Away 
off in Massachusetts — that great commonwealth 
from which the nation has learned so much of order 
and moral persistence — a private citizen — George 
Peabody — was bethinking himself of his country, 
bleeding from the red stripes of the Civil War, and 
wondering what he could do to heal its wounds. It 
is just to hail him as the pioneer of that splendid 
army of '^volunteer statesmen" of whom our democ- 
racy can boast, who do not hesitate to undertake 
any work for their country's good. It did not matter 
to him that the States of the South had stood to him 
for four years as the enemy's country. What he saw 
was youth, which the nation needed for its health, 
springing up untrained and sorely burdened — the 
sons of brave men, men who knew how to die for an 
idea, and who did not know how to compromise. 
What he did was to rise clearly above all small pas- 
sions and to pour his great fortune into those stricken 
states for the benefit alike of the former master and 
of him who had been a slave. Lee, Peabody, Curry! 
We will do well never to tire of mentioning their 
names! An industrial democracy, threatened con- 
stantly with vulgarity and coarse strength, will have 



448 J. L. M. CUERY, A BIOGRAPHY 

increasing need of the example of their noble calm- 
ness and patient idealism. 

- The task that confronted Curry, in its larger lines, 
was to democratize the point of view of an aristo- 
cratic society, to renationalize its impulses and as- 
pirations, to preach the gospel of national unity to 
both sections, to stimulate the habit of community 
effort for public ends, to enrich the concept of civic 
virtue, to exemplify the ideal of social service to 
young men, and to set the public school, in its proper 
correlation to all other educational agencies, in the 
front of the public mind, as a chief concern of con- 
structive statesmanship. His task, in its more tech- 
nical aspects, was to reveal the public school as it 
should be, actually at work in a democratic society, 
with all of its necessities — trained and cultured 
teachers, varied curricula appealing to hand and eye 
and mind, industrial training, beautiful surround- 
ings, nourished by pubUc pride and strengthened by 
public confidence. The first ten years of his work 
were years of battle for the development of public 
opinion; and it was to be a great struggle, for many 
heresies were afield. He was told by those who sat 
in high places that public schools were godless, and 
that the State had no right to tax one man to edu- 
cate another man's child; that it was dangerous to 
educate the masses, and that the educated negro or 
poor white meant a spoiled laborer, and many other 
musty things dear to the heart of the conscientious 
doctrinaire. His reply to all this was: ''Ignorance is 
no remedy for anything. If the state has a right to 
live at all, it has a right to educate. Education is 
a great national investment.'^ 

And so, that solemn, majestic thing, called public 



CONCLUSION 449 

opinion, got born, and a few men as earnest as death 
became somehow what we call a movement, and the 
movement, led by this splendid figure, wherein was 
blended the grace and charm of the old time with 
the vigor and freedom of the new, became, as has 
been said, a new crusade, and young scholars had 
their imaginations touched by it and their creative 
instincts awakened by it, and the preachers saw 
their way clear to push it along, and the politicians, 
ever sensitive to the lightest wind of popular desire, 
felt its stirrings in the air. Above it all, and ener- 
gizing it all, stood this strong, gifted, earnest man, 
to whom was granted the ultimate felicity of behold- 
ing that supremest good of life, a creative work 
well done and bearing fruit. 

In every one of the Southern States to-day there 
is a public system of schools growing yearly more 
complete upon which the South as a whole is expend- 
ing something over forty per cent of all its public 
revenues. To bring this to pass, a war-stricken 
region has expended vast sums of money and organ- 
ized education on a comprehensive and logical basis. 
When Curry undertook his mission in 1881 the total 
school revenue of the South amounted to six millions 
of dollars. In the year 1910 the expenditure will 
approximate thirty-eight millions. Normal and in- 
dustrial schools for both races, sustained by general 
and local taxation, exist in every state. Thirty 
great institutions of higher learning have been re- 
vived and established. The proportion of Southern 
boys studying technological subjects has increased 
tenfold since 1873. Practically all cities and towns 
of three thousand population maintain a school 
system from which boys and girls may pass into 



450 J. L. M. CURRY, A BIOGRAPHY 

college. Agriculture as a science, intensive and 
skilful tilling of the soil, and the elevation of rural 
life have become the program of practical statesman- 
ship. And greater than all these details, a generous 
and triumphant public sentiment has been aroused 
that will make these performances seem feeble in 
another decade. 

The chief work then of this noble life, if such a 
life can be thus summed up, was to develop an irre- 
sistible public opinion in a democracy for the accom- 
plishment of permanent public ends. Through such 
work as his, in one generation of grim purpose and 
intellectual audacity, the South has lost its economic 
distinctness and has become a part of American life 
and American destiny. Men may forget the oratory, 
the diplomacy, the intellectual vigor, the gracious, 
compelling charm of Curry the man, but they will 
not forget the zeal, the self-sm^render of Curry the 
social reformer and civic patriot; and when the 
final roll shall be called of the great sons of the 
South, and of the nation, who served society well 
when service was most needed, it may well be be- 
lieved that no answer will ring out clearer and higher 
and sweeter in that larger air than the ^'Adsum'^ of 
J. L. M. Curry. It speaks well for the farsighted- 
ness and wisdom of the State of Alabama, for whose 
land and people he retained a tender loyalty, and 
whose citizenship he adorned, that that great com- 
monwealth has placed in one of the niches reserved 
for it in the national capitol a marble statue of this son 
of hers containing this brief summary of his life and 
career, — ''Educator, orator, diplomat, patriot." The 
fine discrimination of the act of Alabama in thus 
nobly perpetuating the memory of Curry lies not 



CONCLUSION 451 

so much in the recognition of his varied general 
public services as in the enduring emphasis placed 
upon the fact that a man may be a statesman or a 
hero, as well by service to childhood and ideals of 
human training, as by subtlety in argument or bold 
courage in war. The fame of Curry is secure, for 
it is the persistent fame of the teacher and the re- 
former. 



BIBLIOGKAPHY 

Note-books, diaries and scrap-books; letter-books, news- 
paper clippings and scraps kept by Dr. Curry. 

Letters of various persons to Dr. Curry; and letters from 
him to various persons. 

Loose sheets, memoranda, and sundry manuscript papers 
collected and preserved by Dr. Curry. 

Contemporaneous newspapers, including the Religious 
Herald, the Atlanta Constitution, the Nashville Ameri- 
can, the Richmond Times, the Washington Post, the 
New York Herald, and many others. 

United States Education Report for 1893. 

Special Report, U. S. Bureau of Education, by A. D. 
Mayo. 

Proceedings of the Peabody Education Fund. 

Southern Historical Society Papers, Richmond, Va. 

Report of the American Historical Society for 1897. 

J. L. M. Curry's ''History of the Peabody Fund." 

Publications of the Southern Historical Association. 
Washington, D. C, Vol. V., 1901. 

^' J. L. M. Curry: An Address," by Edwin Anderson Alder- 
man, 1903. 

White's ''Historical Collections of Georgia." 

Appleton's "Cyclopaedia of American Biography." 

"National Cyclopaedia of American Biography." 

Wilham G. Brown's "History of Alabama." 

Edgar G. Murphy's "Problems of the Present South." 

Congressional Globe, 1857-1858. 

Alexander White's "History of the United States." 

S. S. Cox's "Three Decades of Federal Legislation." 

Closkej^'s "Political Cyclopedia." 

453 



454 BIBLIOGKAPHY 

Woodrow Wilson's "Division and Reunion." 
Eben G. Scott's "Reconstruction during the Civil War." 
Alexander H. Stephens's "War between the States." 
"The South in the Building of the Nation." Papers on 

"Georgia" and "Alabama"; and the volumes on the 

"Economic History of the South." 
Von Hoist's "Calhoun" in "The Statesman Series." 
Joseph LeConte's "Autobiography." 
Nicholas Murray Butler's "Education in the United 

States." 
Alexander Johnston's "American Politics," 1892. 
"The Works of John C. Calhoun," in 4 vols. Charleston 

and New York, 1851-1854. 
Biography and correspondence of Calhoun in the Ameri- 
can Historical Association Reports for 1899. 
Ford's "Rise and Growth of American Politics," 1898. 
Powell's "NulHfication and Secession," 1897. 
Lalor's "Political Cyclopaedia," 3 Vols. 
Reuben Davis's "Mississippi and Mississippians." 
Ethel Armes's "The Story of Iron and Coal in Alabama," 

1910. 
Blackford's "Trial of Jefferson Davis" in Virginia State 

Bar Association Reports. 
Curtis's "The True Thomas Jefferson." 
Fleming's "Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama." 



SOCIETIES OF WHICH DR. CURRY WAS 
A MEMBER 

1. Phi Sigma Society of University of Mississippi. 

2. Virginia Historical Society; Member of Executive 

Committee. 

3. Alabama Historical Society. 

4. Southern Historical Association; President. 

5. Southern History Association; President. 

6. American History Association. 

7. Virginia Baptist Historical Society. 

8. Massachusetts Historical Society: Corresponding 

Member. 

9. Southern Club of Harvard University. 

10. American Society for Extension of University Train- 

ing: Member of Council of Twenty. 

11. Evangelical Alliance of the United States. 

12. American Colonization Society. 

13. Phi Beta Kappa Society of WiUiam and Mary Col- 

College. 

14. Northwest Literary and Historical Society. 

15. Curry Literary Society of Winthrop Normal and In- 

dustrial College, S. C. 

16. Royal Order of Charles III : Spanish Decoration : con- 

ferred May 16, 1902. 



455 



Between Oct. 5, 1881, and 
Oct. 4, 1882, the Legislaturea 
of Georgia and Texas were alao 
addressed. — See Proceedings 
of the Peabody Fund, page 63 
of Vol. III. 



Between October 4, 1882, and Oc- 
tober 3, 1883, the Legislature of Ala- 
>- bama was also addressed. — See Pea- 
body Fund Proceedings, Vol. Ill, 
page 123. 



LEGISLATURES ADDRESSED 

1881: March 8: Texas. 

March 18: Tennessee. 

August 5: Georgia. 
1882: January 27: South Carolina. 

: West Virginia. 

February 1: Mississippi. 
1883: January 19: North CaroHna. 

January 26: Arkansas. 

February 9: Tennessee. 

February 20: Florida. 
1884: January 10: Virginia. 

January 21 : Mississippi. 

January 25: Kentucky. 

February 4: U. S. House Committee, on Federal 
Aid. 

February 11: Joint Committee of Virginia Legis- 
lature, in favor of a Normal School. 

May 20: Louisiana. 

December 3 : South Carolina. 
1885: January 12: North Carolina. 

January 16: Arkansas. 

February 3 : Florida. 

February 6: Alabama. 

February 10: Tennessee. 
1888: December 13: Georgia. 
1889: January 18: South Carolina. 

January 24: Arkansas. 

February 1: Alabama. 
1890: May 20: Louisiana. 

December 9: South Carolina. 
456 



LEGISLATURES ADDRESSED 457 

1891: January 21: North Carolina. 
1892: February 4: Virginia. 
1893: February?: Tennessee. 

February 8: Arkansas. 

February 10: Texas. 

October 31: Georgia. 
1894: January 17: Mississippi. 

February 10: Virginia House Finance Committee, 
by request, favoring Normals. 

May 16: Louisiana. 

December 13: South Carolina. 
1896: February 26: Mississippi. 

December 2: Alabama. 
1897 : January 25 : North Carolina. 

March 5: Arkansas. 

March 8 : Texas. 

April 29: Florida. 

November 29: Georgia. 
1898: January 17: Mississippi. 

March 4: Alabama House and Senate Committees 
on Public Lands, favoring appropriations for 
Normals. 

March 7 : Ditto. 
1899: November 24: Georgia House of Representatives. 
1900: February 7: South Carolina. 

November 22: Alabama. 

November 23: Georgia. 

It is not certain that the above is a full list : for the rec- 
ords of several years are more or less incomplete. 

In the majority of cases, these addresses were made at 
the invitation of the legislatures, and were recognized by 
a vote of thanks. Several times printed copies were or- 
dered; once or twice a copy was requested for transcription 
upon the minute book of the assembly. 



INDEX 



Abolitionists, 68, 69, 71, 118. 
Adams, Charles Francis, 96. 
Adams, Gen. Wirt, 186. 
Adee, 312. 
Alabama, 

Constitution of, 30, 31. 

Statehood of, 31. 

Slavery in, 31. 

Meaning of, 34. 

Immigration to, 37, 38. 

Land speculation in, 37. 

Early settlers of, 38. 

Religion in, 39. 

Political creed of, 40. 

Political candidates in, 43, 44. 

Political situation in, 44. 

Establishment of University of, 
45. 

Establishment of public schools 
in, 76. 

Capitol of, 92. 

House of Representatives of, 92. 

Platform of, 94. 

Representatives of, 115. 

Senators of, 115. 

Secession of, 148, 151. 
Alamo, 70, 85. 
Alderman, Edwin A., 357. 
Andrews, Garnett, 20. 
Arbitration, international, 349. 
Armstrong, Gen. S. C, 277, 285. 
Arnold, Matthew, 276, 385, 386. 

Baldwin, Joseph G., 6, 7. 

Baldwin, W. H., 357. 

Bancroft, Geo., 276. 

Barnwell, Robert W., 154. 

Battle at Selma, 187. 

"Battle Hymn of the Republic," 

142. 
Bayard, Thomas F., 407. 
Beauregard, Gen., 181, 182, 213. 
Bell, 111. 
Benjamin, Judah P., 395, 401, 402, 

403. 
Benton, Jessie, 134. 



Benton, Thomas H., 79. 

Bernard, Henry, 75. 

Bocock, Thomas S., 136, 164, 407. 

Bonham, Milledge L., 22. 

Bowden, William P., 84. 

Bowdon, Franklin W., 83. 

Bowie, Andrew W., 84. 

Bowie, Ann Alexander, 98. 

Bowie, James, 21. 

Bowie, Judge Alexander, 98. 

Boyce, J. P., 403. 

Boyce, W. W., 22. 

Black Belt, 37. 

Blaine, James G,, death of, 339. 

Blair, Francis P., 127. 

Blair Bill, 329, 330, 331, 332. 

Blakely, 37. 

Breckinridge, 112, 114, 140. 

Bright, John, 386, 389. 

Broadus, Dr. J. A., 227, 403, 406, 

407. 
Brooks, 406. 

Brown, John, 118, 131, 132. 
Brownlow, Col., 181. 
Bryce, 386, 390, 391. 
Buchanan, 112, 114, 407. 
Bureau of Education, 273. 
Burlingame, Anson, 66. 
Burrows, Dr. J. L., 226, 231, 

403. 
Butler, Wm. Orlando, 92, 97. 
Buttrick, Wallace, 357, 374, 375. 

Calhoun, John C. 9, 21, 40, 69, 70, 
78, 79, 91, 92, 104, 151, 351-354. 
Cameron, Col. Wm. E., 245. 
Camp Meetings, 105. 
Canovas, 301, 313. 
Caperton, Senator, 213. 
Capon Springs Conference, 356. 
Cartersville, 176. 
Cary sisters, 143. 
Cass, Lewis, 97. 
Castelar, 301, 311, 312, 313. 
Chamberlain, Hon. Joseph, 340. 
I Cherry Hill, 24. 



459 



460 



INDEX 



Chilton, William P., 154, 161, 191. 
Clabaugh, Samuel, 11. 
Clay, Clement C, Jr., 115. 
Cleburne, General Pat, 383, 384. 
Cleveland, President, 284, 327, 328, 

407. 
Clopton, David, 152. 
Cobb, Howell, 154, 395, 399, 401. 
Cobb, Thomas Reade Rootes, 154. 
Cobb, Williamson R. W., 115. 
Cockrell, General, 383, 384. 
Co-education, Curry's opinion of, 

43. 
Coleman, Dr., 239. 
Colfax, Schuyler, 137. 
Colquitt, Senator W. T., 80. 
Common school system, 223, 224, 

282. 
Common Schools, 361. 
Compromise Measures, 102, 
Confederacy, 92, 

Congress of, 156, 158, 159, 160. 

Admits Missouri and Kentucky, 
160. 

Legislation of Congress of, 164. 

Character of members of Con- 
gress of, 166. 

Depreciation of currency of, 1G4, 
169. 

Constitution of, 165, 166. 
Constitution, Federal, 92. 
Constructionists, 92, 93. 
Consular and Diplomatic Appro- 
priation Bill, 126. 
Convention, 

Huntsville, 29, 30. 

National Democratic, 112. 

Of seceding states, 154. 
Coosa River, 40. 
Coosa Valley, 35, 38. 
Cotton-gin, 37. 

Cox, Samuel S., "Sunset," 116. 
Crabb, Geo. W., 44. 
Crawford, William H., 20. 
Crockett, 85. 
Crookes, Dr., 229, 230. 
Cruikshanks, Marcus, 168. 
Crysler, Gen., 190. 
Cuba, 356. 
Cuban claims, 307. 
Cunningham, Dr. C. G., 84. 
Curry, Jabez Lamar Monroe, 

Birth of, 3. 

Naming of, 3, 4. 



Curry, Jabez Lamar Monroe, 
Boyhood of, 4. 
Parents of, 8. 
Americanism of, 9, 66, 351, 431, 

432. 
Earliest recollections of, 10. 
Death of mother of, 10. 
Step-mother of, 10, 11. 
Early Education of, 15-16. 
School-boy pranks of, 16. 
First departure from home of, 18. 
Later education of, 18, 21. 
College life of, 45, 47, 48. 
Early teaching days of, 49. 
Classmates of, 50, 51. 
Friends and acquaintances of, 54, 

55. 
Sees himself in print, 56. j 

Political experiences of, 56, 57. 
Acquaintance with ladies, 57, 

58. 
Further education of, 58-60. 
Enters Harvard Law School, 64. 
Classmates at Harvard of, 66. 
Intellectual atmosphere during 

young manhood of, 67, 68. 
Letters of, 72, 73. 
Political leaders in youth of, 71, 

72, 73. 
Recollections of Webster of, 72, 

73. 
Writes letters for publication, 74. 
Enlists, 75. 
Leader in movement for popular 

education, 75, 76. 
Personal appearance of, 77. 
Receives degree of Bachelor of 

Laws, 77. 
Visits Washington and the Sen- 
ate, 78. 
Witnesses inauguration of Polk 

and Dallas, 79. 
Harvard's effect on, 80. 
Reads law, 82, 88. 
Attempts to serve in Mexican 

War, 84, 85. 
Admitted to bar, 86. 
Abandons practise and tries 

farming, 86. 
Enters politics, 87, 88, 89. 
Remarkable letter by, 89, 90. 
Elected to legislature, 92. 
Chairman of important com- 
mittee, 94. 



INDEX 



461 



Curry, Jabez Lamar Monroe, 

Introduces bill, 95. 

Marriage of, 98. 

Children of, 98. 

Buys brother's farm, 104. 

Resumes law practise, 104. 

Moves to Marion, 104. 

Hospitality of, 104, 105. 

As railroad agent, 105. 

Re-elected to legislature, 105. 

Chairman of committees, 105. 

Obtains passage of bill for geo- 
logical survey, 107. 

Death of father, 108. 

Opposes Know-Nothings, 109, 
110. 

Re-elected to House of Repre- 
sentatives, 110. 

Eloquence of, 111. 

Delegate to State Democratic 
convention, 112. 

Popularity of, 113. 

Writes for papers, 113. 

Elected to Congress, 115. 

Moves to Washington, 115. 

Favors armory in Shelby county, 
116. 

Speaks on Kansas question, 117. 

As secessionist, 119, 120. 121. 

Opposes pensions for soldiers of 
1812, 123, 124, 125. 

Hears Patti sing, 124. 

Opposes publication of Congres- 
sional debates, 127. 

Temper of the times, 131, 132, 
133. 

On the Committee of Naval af- 
fairs, 137. 

Asked to defend President Bu- 
chanan, 137. 

As "Watchdog of the Treasury," 
137, 138. 

Enters presidential canvass, 145. 

Advocates secession, 145. 

Withdraws from House, 152. 

Offers Longstreet's services, 157. 

Visits Manassas battlefield, 159. 

Meets Gen. Johnston and Gen. 
Beauregard, 159. 

Opposes admission of Missouri 
and Kentucky into Confed- 
eracy, 160. 

Candidate for re-election, 168. 

Defeated, 168. 



Curry, Jabez Lamar Monroe, 
Turns to war, 171. 
Visits Chickamauga battle-field, 

171. 
Final term in House, 173, 174. 
Appointed Commissioner, 175. 
Religious spirit of, 175. 
Serves on Gen. Johnston's staff, 

176. 
Joins Gen. Wheeler, 179. 
Military experience of, 179, 180, 

181. 
Aide to Gen. Roddy, 181. 
Promoted to rank of Lt. Colonel, 

182. 
Ordered back from Rogersville, 

184. 
Life saved by New York Tribune, 

186. 
Bill filed against, 191. 
Receives pardon, 192. 
Elected college president, 195. 
Death of wife of, 189. 
Captures Federal soldier, 190. 
Surrenders, 190. 
Arrested, 190. 
Paroled, 190. 
Moves to Marion, 195. 
Ordained to ministry, 195. 
Religious history of, 196, 197, 

198. 
As a preacher, 199, 200, 201, 208, 

212, 213, 215. 
Favors education of negroes, 201. 
Diary entries, 202, 203, 204. 
Second marriage, 206. 
Sails to Europe, 206. 
Opposes Reconstruction Consti~ 

tution, 208. 
Resigns college presidency, 209. 
Accepts professorship in Rich- 
mond College, 213. 
Declines pastorships, 215. 
Meets Geo. Peabody, 221. 
Declines three college presiden- 
cies, 224. 
Declines professorships, 224, 225. 
Attacks Church of England, 229, 

230. 
Restored to full citizenship, 237. 
Offered Cabinet position, 238, 
Visits old home, 240, 241. 
Declines political appointments, 

248. 



462 



INDEX 



Curry, Jabez Lamar Monroe, 
Elected agent of Peabody Fund, 

249. 
Resigns from Richmond College, 

251. 
Work for schools, 254-278. 
Reports on Peabody Fund, 261, 

262. 
Minister to Spain, 260, 280. 
Resigns as agent of Peabody 

Fund, 281. 
Visits Lowell, 293. 
Arrives in Madrid, 295. 
Attends King's funeral, 298. 
Received by Queen as Minister, 

299 
Social life of, 300, 301, 302. 
Attends baby King's baptism, 

304, 305. 

Negotiates commercial treaty, 

305, 306. 

Bayard's praise of, 309. 

Attends sessions of Spanish Con- 
gress, 310. 

Correspondents of, 315. 
Resigns as Minister to Spain, 

317. 
Works for Blair Bill, 320. 
As Peabody Fund agent, 323, 

324, 325, 326, 327, 328. 
Ill health of, 328, 329. 
Elected manager of Slater Fund, 

333. 
Elected Honorary Member of 

Peabody Board, 337. 
Friendship of Hayes for, 338, 

339. 
Literary work of, 341, 342, 343, 

344. 
Sails for Europe, 344. 
Visits Greece, 345-346. 
Meets Goldwin Smith, 348. 
Member of Arbitration Com- 
mittee, 349. 
Re-elected agent for Peabody 

Fund, 350. 
Visits Naples, 353. 
Visits Egypt, 355. 
Visits Rome and Monte Carlo, 

356. 
Calls on President McKinley, 

356. 
Elected President educational 

conference, 356. 



Curry, Jabez Lamar Monroe, 

As Director of Southern Educa- 
tion Board, 356. 

Failing health of, 359. 

Entertains National University 
Committee, 361. 

Continued work for education, 
362, 363, 364. 

Achievements as Peabody agent, 
364, 365. 

Elected to Phi Beta Kappa 
Society, 367. 

Confers with President Roose- 
velt, 367. 

Appointed Special Envoy to 
Spain, 367. 

Consults Dr. Osier, 368. 

Calls on Eulalia and Queen Isa- 
bel, 368. 

Spain's reception of, 368, 369. 

Receives decoration of Royal 
Order, 371. 

Re-elected General Agent, 375. 

Estimate of Porter, 376. 

Addresses Peabody Normal Col- 
lege, 377. 

Physical suffering of, 379. 

Death of, 380. 

Burial, 380. 

Admiration of Calhoun, 382, 383. 

Hears Matthew Arnold, 386. 

Dines with Dean Stanley, 386, 
387. 

Breakfasts with Beresford Hope, 
387, 388. 

Visits House of Commons, 388. 

Hears Parnell and Dillon, 389. 

Hears John Bright, 389. 

Dines with Phelps, 389. 

Interview with Gladstone, 390. 

Hears Spurgeon, 391, 392, 393, 
394. 

Hears Prentiss, 398. 

As representative in U. S. Con- 
gress, 401. 

Present at Davis' inauguration, 
403. 

Pall-bearer at Johnston's funeral, 
409. 

Educational theories of, 411-429. 

Religious faith, 433. 

As an educator, 433. 

As a diplomatist, 434. 

As an author, 435. 



INDEX 



463 



Curry, Jabez Lamar Monroe, 

As an orator, 435, 438, 439. 

Social relations of, 436, 437. 

Memorial paper on death of, 441, 
442, 443. 

Character of, 443-448. 

Statue of, 450. 
Curry, Mrs. J. L. M., character- 
istics of, 163. 
Curry, Mrs. J. L. M. (2nd), 

As Sunday school teacher, 221. 

Social life of, 302, 304. 

Visits Europe, 340. 

Receives letter from Spanish 
princess, 366. 

Visits Eulalia and Queen Isabel, 
368. 

Death of, 380. 
Curry, Jackson, 

Matriculation of, 45. 

Joins Phi Kappa Society, 47. 

Graduation of, 58. 
Curry, Jackson C, 9, 10. 
Curry, Jackson Thomas, 98. 
Curry, James A., 11. 
Curry, Manly Bowie, 99, 195, 

309. 
Curry, Mark Shipp, 11. 
Curry, Susan Lamar, 99. 
Curry, Susie, 195. 
Curry, Thomas, 11. 
Curry, Walker, 11. 
Curry, WiUiam, 8, 11, 12, 13, 26, 

Sells "Dark Corner" home and 
buys in Alabama, 29, 30. 

Migration of, 32, 33. 

New home of, 33, 34, 38. 

Business of, 40, 41. 
Curry Memorial School, 374. 
Currys, origin of, 8. 
Curtis, Benjamin R., 132. 
Cutting, Dr. S. S., 227. 

Dabney, Charles W., 357. 

Dallas, 71, 79. 

Dane Law School of Harvard, 61, 

64. 
Daniel, Major John W., 245. 
Dark Corner, The, 1, 2, 3; inhab- 
itants of, 2, 3, 

Homes, 15. 

Schools, schoolhouses and school- 
masters, 15, 16, 17, 18. 
Davis, Henry Winter, 407. 



Davis, Jefferson, 

Elected president of confederacy, 
154. 

Takes oath of office, 155. 

Inaugural address, 155, 156. 

Inauguration of, 162. 

Cabinet appointments of, 162. 

Trial of, 216-218. 
Davis, Dr. Noah K., 49. 
Davis, Reuben, 7, 85. 
Dawes, Henry L., 116. 
Dawn of War, 141, 142. 
Dayton, Wm. L., 114. 
"Debt-payers," 246. 
Democracy, 56, 67. 
Demopolis, 39. 
Dix, Dorothea, 96. 
Doane, Bishop Wm. Croswell, 376. 
Donelson, Andrew Jackson, 114. 
Dooley, Judge John M., 13. 
Double Branches, 25. 
Douglass, Frederick, 74, 118. 
Dow, Lorenzo, 39. 
Dowdell, James F., 115. 
Dred Scott case, 114, 132. 
Duane, 84. 
Dudley, Bishop, 356. 
Duke of Almodovar, 368. 

Early, Gen. Jubal A., 228. 408. 

Easter in Greece, 345, 346, 347. 

Eaton, Gen., 273. 

Echols, Gen., 213. 

Electoral Commission, 234, 235, 

236, 237. 
Ellis, Harvey W., 44. 
English, development of, 49, 60. 
Evans, Augusta, 149. 
Evarts, William M., 407. 
Evarts, Wm. H., 377. 
Everett, 111. 
Ezekiel, Moses, 239, 240. 

Faneuil Hall, 69. 

Fearn, Thomas, 154. 

"Fiat money," 29. 

Fillmore, Millard, 97, 114. 

Finn, Daniel W., 25, 42. 

Fitzpatrick, Benjamin, 115. 

Fleming, Joel, 15. 

Fleming, Robert, 13. 

"Flush Times of Mississippi and 

Alabama," 29. 
Foote, Henry S., 164. 



r 



464 



INDEX 



Forrest, Gen., 186, 187, 188. 
Fort Mims, 35. 
Fort Sumter fired on, 153. 
Franklin College, 45, 

Curriculum of, 48, 49. 
Fraser, Dr., 375. 
Frayser, mischief of, 19. 
Free Schools, 257, 258, 260, 233, 

268, 273, 275, 286. 
Free Soilers, 96. 

Platform of, 96. 
Freedman's Bureau, 191, 193, 424. 
Fremont, John C, 134. 
Frizzell, Hollis B., 357. 
Frothingham, 91, 120. 
Fugitive Slave Law, 102. 
Fuller, Chief Justice, 377. 
Fuller, Dr.. 212. 
Fuller, Richard, 403, 404, 405, 406. 

Garnett, 164. 

Garrison, William Lloyd, 68, 69, 
74, 91, 120. 

Gates, Frederick T., 374. 

General Education Board, 373, 374, 
375. 

General Education Fund, 377. 

Georgia, 38. 

"Georgia Scenes" by Judge Long- 
street, 2, 21. 

Gholson, Samuel J., 6. 

Gilman, Dr., 363, 376. 

Gladstone, 386, 390, 391. 

Gordon, John B., 148. 

Government and state of society in 
Curry's youth, 5-7. 

Grant, 407. 

Greece, Easter in, 345, 346, 347. 

Green, Dr. S. A., 284, 323. 

Green, Wm., 223. 

Greeley, Horace, 122, 385. 

Green Bag, 65. 

Greenbrier White, 227. 

Greenbrier White Sulphur Springs, 
213. 

Greenleaf, Simon, 64, 65, 66. 

Griffin, Col., 114. 

Hale, Stephen F., 154. 
Halyburton, Judge, 223. 
Hamlin, Hannibal, 143. 
Hampton Institute, 277, 285, 286, 

425. 
Handspiker, Stephen, 13. 



Harcourt, Sir William Vernon, 388. 

Harris, Dr., 22. 

Harris, H. H., 380. 

Hatcher, Dr., 212. 

Hayes, Rutherford B., 66, 407, 

Attitude toward presidential 
campaign of 1877, 76, 77. 

Visits negro cabin, 338. 

Death of, 339. 
Haygood, Bishop, 333. 
Haywood, Wm. Henry, 79. 
Helper, Hinton R., 132. 
Hemphill, John, 154. 
Hendricks, Thomas A,, 296. 
Henley, M., 13. 
Henry, Patrick, 40. 
Heroes of Mexican War, 95. 
Hill, Benjamin Harvey, 51, 154, 

395, 396. 
Hillard, George Stillman, 73. 
Hoar, 376, 377. 
Hoge, Moses D., 403. 
Hollywood, 380. 
Hood, Gen., 177, 178, 181, 182. 
Hooker, Joe, 408. 
Hope, Beresford, 386, 387, 388. 
Hope, Lady, 388. 
Horseshoe Bend, 35. 
Houston, Geo. S., 115, 152. 
Houston, Sam, 14, 85. 
Howard College, 195. 
Howe, Julia Ward, 142. 

"Impending Crisis," 132, 136. 
Indian depredations, 215. 
Indians, 34, 35, 36. 
Isabel Point, 84. 

Jack, Susan, 98. 

Jackson, Gen. Andrew, 35. 

Jackson, Henry R., 55. 

Jackson, "Stonewall," 384, 385. 

Jefferson, Thomas, 40, 50, 274. 

Jesup, Morris K., 376. 

Jeter, Dr. J. B., 227, 380, 403, 404. 

Johnston, Gen., 176-178, 408, 409. 

Jones, Dr. T. G., 406. 

Judson Female Institute, 195. 

Kansas-Nebraska Bill, 112. 
Kansas Question, 119. 
Kelly, Gen., 181. 
Kelly's Springs, 29, 32, 
Indians of, 35, 36. 



INDEX 



465 



Kentucky passes bill improving 

school system, 276. 
Khedive, 355. 
King, Wm. R., 93. 
King of Spain, birth of, 302, 303; 

baptism of, 303, 304, 305. 
Know-Nothing Party, 108, 

Platform of, 110. 

Waning of, 111. 
Knox, William W., 83. 

Lamar, Captain John, 13. 
Lamar, Lafayette, 18, 

Marriage of sister of, 19. 

Vandalism, 19. 

Death of, 50. 

Academic honors of, 59. 
Lamar, Lucius Quintus Curtius, 14, 

115. 
Lamar, Mirabeau B., 14. 
Lamar, Peter, 13, 19. 
Land, Government, Speculation in, 

36, 37. 
Lane, 140. 

Langdon, Hon. C. C, 111. 
Le Conte, Joseph, 

Letter of, 51, 52. 

Birth of, 53. 

Death of, 53. 

Career of, 53, 395. 
Lee, Gen. Robert E., 188, 213, 214, 

223, 409, 445. 
Letcher, Gov., 213, 228. 
Lewis, David P., 154. 
Lewis, Dixon H., 78. 
Lewis, Dixon M., 92, 93, 

Chosen for U. S. Senate, 93. 
"Liberator," 69, 120. 
Lincoln, Abraham, 143, 153. 
Lincoln, Benjamin, 1. 
Lincoln County, 1, 2, 

Moral fibre of, 12, 13. 

Religious influences, 14. 

Religious liberality, 26. 

Politics of, 26. 
Lincolnton, 1, 18, 19, 20. 
Linton, 395, 397. 
Little River, 1. 
Lockhart, B., 13. 
Lockhart, John, 13. 
London, A Sunday in, 392, 393, 

394. 
Longstreet, Judge, 2, 21. 
Longstreet, Major James, 157. 



Lovejoy, Owen, 91, 116. 
Lumpkin, Judge Joseph H., 20. 

Mahone, Gen. Wm., 245, 246. 

Mann, Horace, 17, 74, 75. 

Manly, Basil, 403. 

Manly, Sr., 406. 

Mardisville, Ala., 36. 

Marengo County, 39. 

Marion, 195, 201. 

Marquis of Villalobar, 368, 369. 

Marshall, 40. 

"Maryland, my Maryland," 143. 

Mason, James Murray, 102. 

Maury, Commodore, 213. 

Mayo, Rev. A. D., 268. 

McCrae, Colin J., 154. 

McCulloch, Ben, 85. 

McDuffie, Geo., 21, 24, 79. 

Mcintosh, 201. 

Mclver, Charles D., 351. 

McKerley, Rev., 18. 

McKinley, President, 356. 

Meek, Alexander B., 106. 

Meek, Judge, 76. 

Meminger, Charles G., 154. 

Memorial Campaign, 225, 226, 227. 

Mercer University, 208. 

Meteoric Shower, 18. 

Mexican War, Heroes of, 95. 

Miller, Andrew, 21. 

Mims, Fort, 35. 

Minister of Foreign Affairs, 368. 

Mississippi River, 35, 37. 

Mississippi State, 37. 

Missouri Compromise, 101. 

Mitchell, Thomas, 13. 

Mobile, 37. 

Montgomery (city), 37, 83, 92. 

Montgomery, James, 84. 

Montgomery White Sulphur 

Springs, 227. 
Moore, Andrew B., 201. 
Moore, Sydenham, 115, 152. 
Morehead, Mrs., 375. 
Moret, 307, 308, 309, 311, 313. 
Morgan, J. Pierpont, 284, 375, 376. 
Morley, 388. 

Mosby, Colonel John S., 383, 384. 
Murphy, Edgar Gardner, 357, 358. 
Murray, Hon. Thomas W., 11, 13. 

Nashville Normal School, 259, 260, 
264, 265, 282. 



466 



INDEX 



National University Committee, 

361. 
Negro, 

Education of, 267, 268, 270, 274, 
282, 285, 286, 334, 335, 336, 
337, 363, 423-427, 437, 445. 

Evils of superstitions of, 28. 
New England, 38. 
New Hope battle, 383, 384. 
Normal Schools, 263, 264. 
North Carolina, 38. 
Nullification, 94, 151. 

O'Conor, Chas., 216. 

Ogden, Robert C, 356, 359, 360, 

361. 
Orators, 72, 73. 
Orr, James L., 116. 
Osier, Wm., 368. 

Page, Walter H., 357. 

Park, Edward Amasa, 73. 

Parnell, Charles Stewart, 386. 

Parsons, Lewis E., 109. 

Patterson, Col. Josiah, 182, 185. 

Patti, Adelina, 124, 125. 

Payne, Dr. Wm. H., 260, 322, 325, 

326. 
Peabody, George, 204, 221, 222, 

248, 281, 357, 447. 
Peabody Board of Trustees, 261, 

275, 276, 277, 281, 283, 284, 285- 

291, 326, 327, 350, 376. 
Peabody Fund, 204, 221, 248, 254, 

255, 256, 257, 258, 259, 261, 266, 

267, 270, 272, 275, 277, 282, 283, 

284, 320-328, 357, 362, 364, 377, 

440. 
Peabody Normal College, 376, 377, 

378. 
Peabody Trustees Memorial, 441, 

442, 443. 
Pennington, Wm., 136, 137. 
Pension Bill, 123, 124, 125. 
Perry, Wm. F., 106. 
Petigru, James Lewis, 21. 
Philippines, 356. 
Phillips, Wendell, 68, 69, 71, 91, 

120, 398. 
Pickens, Gov., 213. 
Pierce, George, 406. 
Plumer, W. S., 403, 404. 
Political conditions, 90, 91. 
Political storm gathering, 70, 71. 



Political tension, 133, 134, 135, 136. 
Polk, President James K., 71, 79, 

92. 
Polk, General Leonidas, 383, 384. 
Porter, Governor, 375, 376. 
Porter, Hon. James D., 260. 
Porto Rico, 356. 

Prentiss, Sergeant S., 395, 398, 399. 
Presidential election of 1876, 234, 

235. 
Preston, 164. 

Price, Prof. Thomas R., 49. 
Pugh, James L., 152. 
Pushmatahaw, story of, 5-7. 

Quincy, Josiah, 66. 
Quitman, Gen. John A., 95. 

"Race Conference," 363. 
Railroad, transcontinental, 95. 
RampoUa, Cardinal, 298. 
Randall, James Ryder, 143. 
Rantoul, Robert, Jr., 74. 
Raymond, 201. 
Readjuster Party, 245. 
Reconstruction, 193. 
Reconstruction State Constitution, 

208. 
Remsen, David H., 11, 45, 47. 
Remsen, Mrs. Mary, 11. 
Republican platform of 1860, 143, 

144. 
Rice, Samuel W., 82. 
Richmond, 158. 
Richmond College, 380. 
Richmond College Law School, 223. 
Riddleberger, 246. 
Rives, William C, 164. 
Rockefeller, John D., 373, 374, 375. 
Roddy, Gen., 181, 182, 184. 
Roger, Henry D., 107. 
Rogers, Wm. Barton, 107. 
Roosevelt, Theodore, 8, 407. 
Rose, Wyckliffe, 359. 
Ruffner, Dr. Wm. H., 230, 277, 286. 

Salisbury, 388. 
Samson, Dr., 123. 
San Jacinto, 85. 
Sands, A. H., 161. 
Savannah River, 1. 
Schaff, Philip, 403. 
School law, 105, 106. 



INDEX 



467 



Sears, Dr. Barnas, 221, 222, 223, 

227, 241, 242, 249, 254, 255, 256, 

261, 364, 376. 
Secession, 69, 70, 119, 120, 121, 122, 

150, 151. 
Seismographs, 52. 
Selma, 37, 187. 
Semmes, Raphael, 157. 
Semmes, Thomas J., 66. 
Seven Days' Battles, 163. 
Shaler, Nathaniel S., Theory of, 8. 
Shaw, Albert, 357. 
Sherman, Gen. John, 136, 177, 178, 

407, 408, 409. 
Shields, James, 95. 
"Shin-plaster," 29, 37. 
Shorter, John Gill, 154. 
Siamese Twins, 24. 
Sickles, 368. 
Simmons, Sterne, 13. 
Simpkins, R., 368, 369, 375. 
Slater, Eli S., 115. 
"Slater Fund," 268, 269, 270, 271, 

325, 332, 333, 334, 362, 377. 
Slater, John F., 268, 269, 271. 
Slater Trustees, 337. 
Slavery, 44, 68, 69, 70, 88, 91, 100, 

114, 117, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122, 

131, 132, 133, 138, 144. 
Smith, Dr. C. A., 374. 
Smith, Goldwin, 348. 
Smith, Hoke, 376. 
Smith, R. H., 154. 
South Carolina, 38, 147. 
Southern Convention, 103. 
Southern depression, 169, 170. 
Southern Education, 445, 446, 447, 

448, 449. 
Southern Education Board, 356, 

357, 358, 359, 360, 374. 
Southern Education Conference, 

363. 
Southern Historical Society, 227, 

228. 
Southern loyalty, 157, 158. 
Spanish Congress, 310, 311, 312, 

313. 
Spanish War, 352. 
Spurgeon, 386, 391, 392, 393, 394, 

406. 
"Squatter Sovereignty," 112. 
Stallworth, James A., 115, 152. 
Stanley, Dean, 386, 387. 
Staples, 164. 



"State Aid," 106. 

Stearns, Dr., 260, 325. 

Stephen, 388. 

Stephens, Alexander H., 53, 154, 

162, 213, 395, 396, 397. 
Stephens, Linton, 53, 59, 61. 
St. Stephens, 37. 
Stevenson, Andrew, 92. 
Story, Joseph, 64, 65, 66. 
Stovall, J., 13. 
Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 132. 
Strobel, E. H., 307. 
Stuart, Alexander H. H., 213. 
Stump-speaking, 43, 44. 
Sumter, Fort, Firing on of, 153. 
Survey, geological, 107. 

Tait, Archbishop, 386. 
Talladega County, 29, 33, 

Meaning of name of, 34. 

As a thoroughfare, 38. 

Agricultural products of, 40, 

Roads of, 40. 

Mail facilities of, 41. 

Preachers of, 42. 

Schools of, 42, 43. 
Taylor, Gen., 88, 90, 92, 97. 
Teachers' Institutes, 264. 
Tennessee, 38. 
Tennessee River, 38. 
Texas, annexation of, 70, 

Statehood of, 82. 
Thomas, James, Jr., 161, 206. 
Thomas, Mary W., 206, 212. 
Thomas, William D., 380 
Ticknor, 383. 
Tombigbie River, 39. 
Toombs, Robert, 21, 154, 279, 395, 

399, 400. 
"Tulane Administrators," 271. 
Tulane, Paul, 271. 
Tulane University, 271. 
Turpin, Rev. John B., 99. 
Tuscaloosa, 37. 
Tyler, Pres., 56, 57, 159. 

University of Alabama, 45. 
University of Georgia, 45. 
Uncle Tom's Cabin, 132. 

Van Buren, Martin, 96. 
Vaughn, Mr., 18. 
Vetoes, 106. 
Virginia, 38, 154. 



468 



INDEX 



Waddell, Rev. Moses, 21, 22, 23,24. 
Waddell, James P., 22, 25. 
Waddell, John N., 22, 25. 
Waldon, Geo. S., 172. 
Walker, Leroy Pope, 92, 

Elected Speaker of House, 94. 
Walker, Robert W., 154. 
Walker, Richard W., Ill, 172, 173. 
Wallace, James, 13. 
Walsh, Mike, 78. 
Walton, Robert, 13. 
Washburne, Elihu, 407. 
Washington, Booker T., 335, 375, 

425. 
Weston, Dr. H. G., 213. 
Wetumpka, 37, 40. 
Whiggery, 56, 57. 
Whigs, nominees of, 71. 
Whipple, Bishop, 376. 
White, Thomas, Academic honors 

of, 59. 
Whitney, Asa, 95, 96. 
Wheeler, Gen. Joseph, 179, 181. 



Wigfall, Lewis T., 154. 

Wilkes, John, 1. 

Wilkes County, 1, 12. 

Williams, Dr., 212. 

Willington School, 21-25. 

Wilmot, David, 100. 

Wilmot Proviso, 88, 89, 100, 101, 

118. 
Wilson, Gen., 185, 186. 
Winn, General, 8, 9. 
Winn, Susan, 8. 
Winnsboro, S. C., 8, 9. 
Winston, Governor, 106, 107. 
Winthrop, Robert C., 204, 249, 

292, 329, 330, 331, 341. 
Wise, Henry A., 102, 109. 
Withers, Col. Robert E., 231. 
Withers, T. J., 154. 
Woodward, Hon. Thomas B., 109. 
Woodward, Joseph A., 109. 
World's Evangelical Alliance, 229. 

Yancey, W. L., 93, 94, 395, 398. 



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THE LETTERS OF 

RICHARD HENRY LEE 

Collected and Edited by JAMES CURTIS BALLAGH, PH.D., LL.D. 

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"A very interesting and complete collection of letters of one of the most dis- 
tinguished, if not the most distinguished, members of that Virginia family whose 
name has been so conspicuous in American history. The book is an important 
contribution to historical literature and should prove deeply interesting to the 
student and entertaining to any reader." — Baltimore Evening Sun. 

"The volume is fxill of first-hand information, and provides not only interesting 
reading, but throws new light upon the most critical period of our history." — 
Christian Work. 

"It possesses large public interest and historical value."— Philadelphia North 
American. 

"Will be welcome to all readers and students interested in the early history of 
this country. Professor Ballagh has brought together from all sources, in most 
cases from original manuscripts or transcripts, as many letters of historical im- 
portance as possible that are of the indisputable authorship of this early states- 
man." — Boston Herald. 

"A welcome and valuable addition to the documentary history of the Revolu- 
tion." — New York Sun. 

"The letters will be welcomed for their historical as well as intrinsic value for 
biographical purposes." — Herald. 



PUBLISHED BY 

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

SIXTY-FOUR AND SIXTY-SIX FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK 



REMINISCENCES 

By GOLDWIN SMITH, D.C.L. 
Edited by ARNOLD HAULTAIN 



Cloth. Gilt top. Illustrated with Photogravures and Half-tones. 
8vo, 429 pages, $3.00 net; by mail, $3.17. 



"This autobiography is of especial interest to the people of America, for the 
great Canadian was a British friend of the North when friends were badly needed. 
For this reason the chapters on the Civil War appeal most strongly to American 
readers, and those who read them will be entertained by their originality and 
sprightliness. Mr. Smith was in close touch with some of the leading men of the 
North and with prominent commanders in the field, and his impressions gained 
from this acquaintanceship make highly interesting reading." — Pittsburg Chronicle 
Telegraph. 

"It is a book of wide and permanent appeal, not only to students of politics 
and economics, but also to the larger clientele of readers ever willing to welcome 
a fresh record of an inspiring age." — Philadelphia North American. 

"A veritable mine of pleasure, a big, comfortable companion for an armchair 
by the fire on a rainy night." — Kentucky Post. 

"A well-conceived, richly endowed volume of reminiscences in the life of a great 
and good man. It partakes of the nature of an autobiography, but includes vastly 
more of everything of value and interest that is inseparably associated with the 
author's life." — Telescope, Dayton, Ohio. 

"Filled with material of unusual interest, this volume will be welcomed by all 
admirers of the late Goldwin Smith, scholar, educator, publicist, author, whose 
name was revered for nearly three-quarters of a century throughout the United 
States, Canada, and Great Britain." — San Francisco Examiner. 



PUBLISHED BY 

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SIXTY-FOUR AND SIXTY-SIX FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK 



" The best biography of a great man ever written." 

THE LIFE OF WILLIAM 
EWART GLADSTONE 

By the Rt. Hon. JOHN MORLEY 

Editor of "English Men of Letters," Author of "Burke," " Machiavelli," "Wal- 
pole," "On Compromise," "Voltaire," "Rousseau," "Richard Cobden," 
"Studies in Literature." 

New Edition in two volumes. Preparing. 

"The work before us has more than fulfilled our expectations; it is indeed a 
masterpiece of historical writing, of which the interest is absorbing, the authority 
indisputable, and the skill consummate." — The Saturday Review, London. 

"It is a great task greatly achieved, a grand portraiture of a grand subject on 
a great scale and in a worthy style." — The Spectator, London. 

"The volumes show a powerful intellect and a practised hand, controlled by 
the loftiest principles, at work upon a great theme in a spirit of absolute impar- 
tiality," — New York Tribune. 

"A wonderful and satisfying portrait ... an absorbing story of palpitating 
life." — The Evening Sun, New York. 



Correspondence on Church and 
Religion of William Ewart Gladstone 

Selected and Arranged by D. C. LATHBURY. 
2 Vols. Cloth, Illustrated, 8vo. $5.00 net, expressage extra. 

The work of the Right Hon. William Ewart Gladstone, one of England's noblest 
statesmen, has always claimed serious attention. In this selection from his corres- 
pondence, covering a period of over sixty years of eventful history, will be found the 
carefully considered views of a free and untrammeled thinker on the momentous 
religious controversies and movements of his period, chronologically arranged 
under the following headings: 

Vol. L Church and State, 1829-1894. — Ecclesiastical Patronage and University 
Reform, 1869-188 5.— The Oxford Movement, 1840-1894.— The Scottish Epis- 
copal Church, i8!;8-t862. 

Vol. IL Oxford Elections, 1847-1865. — The Controversy with Rome, 1850- 
1896. — The Controversy with Unbelief. 1864-1896. — Education, 1843-1894- — 
Letters of Mr. Gladstone to his Children, 1847-1893. — Personal, 1826-1896. 



PUBLTSHED BY 

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

SIXTY-FOUR AND SIXTY-SIX FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK 



MODERN EGYPT 

By the EARL OF CROMER 
In two volumes. With portraits and maps. $6.00 net. 

"For more than a quarter of a century the gentleman who was originally plain 
Evelyn Baring, later a baronet in succession to his father, and who still later rose 
through successive degrees of the peerage to his present dignity as first Earl of 
Cromer, was practically the British Viceroy of Egypt. Possibly no ruler in the 
world in all this period possessed more absolute power. . . . 

"The book is a model of what such a book ought to be. It is entirely temperate 
and modest in tone, but it is lucidly explanatory of the conditions which confronted 
Lord Cromer in Egypt, and . , . his own conduct in the emergencies that arose 
from those conditions. To the equipment of the diplomat and the financier gen- 
erally conceded to him must now be added some of the best gifts of the historian 
— a broad outlook, a keen insight, a patient tolerance, and a remarkably vivid, 
strong, and nervous style." — New York Herald. 

" 'Modem Egypt' is without exception the most important and most valuable 
book of its particular class which has appeared in a quarter of a century, and it 
will be so appreciated by discerning students and historians." — Public Ledger. 

"Lord Cromer has fittingly crowned his labors by rendering an account of his 
stewardship in a work which will take lasting rank, not as an inspired blue book, 
but as a narrative of intense human interest, real literary power, and profound 
ethical value. 

"Its chief merit is that it reveals, in language that brings conviction as well 
as enlightenment, the ultimate significance of what has taken place in Egypt since 
the beginning of the English regime. There are books which treat at greater 
length one or other of the far-reaching reforms instituted under Lord Cromer's 
prudent direction. There are also books in which far more emphasis is laid on the 
distinctively dramatic aspects of the period. But there is no book which aflfords 
such a thorough, complete, and well-rounded view of all phases in the making of 
modern Egypt.'' — The Outlook. 

"That they are memorable and important volumes need scarcely be said, and 
it is a pleasure to add that their crystal-clear English makes them easy reading. 
The student of human progress, whether he be imperialist or anti-imperialist, will 
find much to fascinate him in this strange story of facts, with its tremendous 
contrast between the cruelty and corruption of Oriental rule, depicted in the 
chapters on Ismail Pasha, and the just and beneficent order of things described 
in the closing pages. British idealism and love of justice can show no nobler 
monument than Lord Cromer's Egypt. . . . 

"Lord Cromer's book is a worthy, modest, clear-eyed account of a great life- 
work, a book so simple, sincere, and accurate that his enemies are not to be envied 
the task of picking it to pieces." — Chicago Record-Herald. 

"No representative of the British government abroad has, in recent years, had 
a story to tell quite comparable to that which Lord Cromer unfolds in these vol- 
umes. Fate gave him a remarkable opportunity and, as all the world knows, he 
rose to it in remarkable fashion. . . . 

"His book is the book of a skilful, intellectual, and high-minded diplomat who 
has labored always with unselfish zeal, and, in recording the events in which he 
has shared, is anxious to sink all personal considerations before the conviction that 
the truth should prevail." — New York Tribune. 



\ 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

^ PUBLISHERS 

SIXTY-FOTJR AND SIXTY-SIX FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK 



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